D&D 5E Would You Rather Have a LE or CN party member?

[Horwath]

Lawful Evil, in my group. I've got several players who regularly go with CN characters, and it's frustrating. An LE character might get another player killed... but a CN character will often end the campaign. My players use the CN alignment for "teh lulz", as the kids sometimes say. Drink from the unknown bubbling fountain, press the red button, rob the NPC patron they're supposed to be working for, break the staff of the magi, etc.

Here's a recent summary of actual behavior at the table. No joke, no exaggeration:

1) "I drink my potion of hill giant strength, then my potion of heroism, then my potion of.... Huh? What? Potion mixing table?!? What's that? Whoa! You mean to say there's a 1% chance one of these becomes permanent!?! Right - this character's whole shtick is now to mix as many potions as possible, as soon as I get them. Yeah, yeah... 15% chance of possible-lethal side-effects... don't care. I'm CN." [kills self and ally with potion explosion several sessions later, which sucked for the other player... also stole and insta-drank every potion he came across, depleting the party of critical resources]

2) 'Yeah, yeah... the other guys can handle the hill giants. I'm getting this chest away from the battle. I know it's heavy! I'm going to spend four rounds lowering it through the shaft in the floor, then we can escape. Sure... the paladin's already down. That's not my problem! I'm CN, remember?" [paladin dies, as does one of the other PCs... and he never does get away with the chest]

3) "Why are you guys negotiating with this [obviously level-inappropriate, but willing to talk, boss monster]? This isn't what a CN character would do. Okay, as my buddies back away slowly, I walk up to the gargantuan death spider and tell it to fix it's attitude. And to show it I mean business, I take out my dagger and put it on the floor in front of me. If I have to pick up that dagger, it's dead. Don't make me pick up my dagger, buddy." [gargantuan death spider makes him eat that dagger, and then proceeds to rampage over his buddies as well]

...and, for the most recent one, which ended our Tomb of Annihilation campaign:

4) "Hells, yeah! I just killed the beholder. And, sure, my buddies are all down. One of them is dead, the other two are bleeding out. But they've only got 1 death box each, and I've got a healing kit... [the other players nod vigorously, relieved] ...eh. I'm playing a wild mage, and I've got this wand of wonder I picked up earlier. The CN thing to do would be to try to use the wand to heal them... [other players start howling protests] ...I point the wand at the fighter and see what happens. If it doesn't heal him, I'll stablize him next round." [rolls a fireball... fighter and nearby cleric both record their 2nd death box for taking damage while fallen, and then... going in initiative order... have to make their own start-of-turn death saves before the wild mage gets to act again. Both fail their saves, and die. Session ends in a hurry to prevent actual physical violence at the table...]

In summary, with my group, I have literally said: "NO CHAOTIC NEUTRAL CHARACTERS" for some campaigns. And yes, I know the behavior above is just bad gaming, and there's nothing forcing a CN character to act with Joker-level insanity, but my group has only one interpretation of CN - and it's terrible.

haha!

That is CS( Chaotic Stupid) not CN alignment.

CN is not free pass to be a jerk. That is more CE, but that kind of play from both CN and CE is actually CS.

whatever the alignment, players must be a team player, for the most part.

Be CN towards the NPC, but in a way that it does not damage other PCs directly.

When I play CN, I'm usually the anti-hero, doing good thing, sometimes selfish, but with evil methods for the good goal.


I.E. in one campaign there was a Bane cult with zetharim network that exploited a small town and had every official in pocket. And killing any dissident.

So I was a rogue and found out that they have some religious day and some service with all member. I sneaked in night before, planted lots of oil and alcemist fires in the chamber. When they started I killed the lone sentry, ignite the trap and locked them in.

Done deal, town was free from corruption, mayor mobbed down after he lost their protection

 

[Coroc]

Well LE is more predictable and not chaotic. While your Halfling did kill the witness for a good reason, a CN might have killed it for some crazy unjustified cause e.g. "I did not like his uniform". A NE would have killed it just to be sure, a CE would have killed the bard and the guard witness.

The border between CN and CE is slim, also in this case, unless the CN plays a real loonatic, which can be very stressful for the rest of the group.

Unless you do have a Paladin in the group and the game is total old school, I would say LE is the easier alignment to go with.

 

[Zardnaar]

Is he a SEXY SHOELESS GOD OF WAR?

No he is not a stick figure.

I did roll for comliness and he is average looking.

 

[Ymdar]

No he is not a stick figure.

I did roll for comliness and he is average looking.

So you are trying to say he is not a two dimensional character?

 

[Zardnaar]

So you are trying to say he is not a two dimensional character.

Na I put a bit of effort into Rats. His real name is Dwill.

Belkar also has a nice ring but he uses shorts words instead of daggers.

 

[mrrockitt]

Lawful evil every time. I have an LE Paladin of Conquest. He rules through fear! Being a Paladin he believes very much in Law, as you can imagine, but cares little for others. He does not kill indiscriminately and would protect his party members to further his cause but this rule does not apply to those he feels are beneath him. For example, he helped defend a village against Orcs, most of the villagers died but to my Paladin these were acceptable losses. He did not laugh about them dying, he just felt no emotion at all about them, this did cause some conflict in the party but this all helped with the immersion and was quickly resolved. Any character that is lawful has got to be easier to manage and reason with than someonr chaotic I think.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Na I put a bit of effort into Rats. His real name is Dwill.

Belkar also has a nice ring but he uses shorts words instead of daggers.

To be fair, as a halfling it requires a whole feat to use talls words.

 

[BookBarbarian]

It depends on the player and how he is playing the character.

Agreed.

I know the behavior above is just bad gaming, and there's nothing forcing a CN character to act with Joker-level insanity, but my group has only one interpretation of CN - and it's terrible.

Based on the evidence I think that is true.

As for me, regardless of what alignment is on a character sheet, an a-hole player will be a problem.

As a bit of an experiment my current goal is to play a CE character that works with the party, loves his party mates, and would die for any of them, and acts with arbitrary violence spurred by bloodlust.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

So good people of ENworld would you want a PC like "Rats" in your party or a CN one?

It depends. Variables include what am I playing, how the PCs in question are prospectively going to be played, how well either fits in with the party and campaign.

And in the context of earlier editions, if there are any mechanical/rules based reasons why one or the other wouldn’t work.

 

[guachi]

Lawful Evil.

I've only once seen a chaotic neutral PC I didn't want to hurt badly (hurt the player, that is) in my entire time playing D&D. A good friend was maddeningly brilliant at CN.