How do you play an evil character without the rest of the party going full retard at you?
You don't go full retard yourself.
Being evil doesn't necessarily mean burning down every orphanage you can find. It just means that you're doing things for your own benefit - which is almost what adventurers are doing anyway.
you got to be real subtle.
play devils advocate way too often, anybody calls you on it, shrug it off.
Evil is selfish and destructive, you know who else is selfish and destructive? the chaotic good players. buddy up with them and try to corrupt them.
>>46355438
Evil does not mean 'be a dick to everyone'. If you want to play an evil character in a good party, be a more subtle brand of evil - selfish deals, don't share loot, intimidating/persuading people to get what you want, questionable morality.
The issues arise when you're a chaotic evil murderhobo, random executions or blatant cruelty etc.
You know those demons that can patiently wait hundreds of years for their bindings to fade away?
Or a terrified xenophobic mob of villagers that will kill any visitor from outside their village?
Try to emulate them, they know what's up.
Evil is patient and it is a natural tendency.
>>46355612
In other words, be lawful evil.
The only way you could justify chaotic evil is if your character is so scared of the world that he/she wants to kill everything and everyone that scares them. Only then can he/she be safe.
Once you emphasize your characters fears, the other players might be sympathetic.
>>46355886
Or at least be hilarious with chaotic evil, it gets used by edgy characters too much.
>>46355438
Don't play Retarded Evil alignment.
Evil alignment equats to amoralistic, not "I'm going to go out of my way to torch every orphanage I see". That's a behaviour that falls into Chaotic Evil, but not all CE are ophanage arsonists either.
>>46355438
Here's my motto: Be Evil, but don't be a Villain.
Evil can still have friends. Evil can still live in fear of consequences from the law. Evil can be after things more important or interesting than blood and death. One of the most important things to remember is that there is no 'Evil Side' that you have to be loyal to. Why should you care if the people you kill are also evil? You want their stuff.
In fact, your average adventuring party acquires lots of things that an evil person would want (power, influence, money) and chances are your evil character is smart enough to realize that he can't accomplish these things on his own.
Even Chaotic Evil can be cohesive with a group given proper motivations. Pic related.
>>46355973
Yes, an evil human is still a human, important to remember.
>>46355438
You don't.
>>46355995
Then WHAT is Evil?
Is an evil character always supposed to lust for power? Can't he have other motivations?
>>46356042
http://easydamus.com/alignmentreal.html
>>46356079
So, a man wanting to change the traditions and the customs in a city (such as, dunno, fight for or against slavery), good or evil?
>>46356114
>fight for or against
Yeah man, is minus or plus negative or positive?
>>46356147
That's an example.
>>46356042
>>46356114
Depends on morality.
Good = strong moral compass
Evil = amoral
If you're Evil and hungry, you will take the candy from the baby. If you're REALLY Evil, you'll also punch the baby.
Just as a Good person would save a child from a burning building, only a REALLY Good person would knowingly sacrifice their life for another person.
Basically just remember that good/evil=moral/amoral, and there's a lot of differences between one evil character and another.
>>46356159
No, that's stupid.
>>46356114
Slavery is a morally complex issue. On one hand, it benefits your group while making another suffer. In this case, it would be good morally in the eyes of the enslaver and bad in the eyes of the enslaved.
>>46356042
Evil is more method rather than ends in my opinion. A good man can still want riches and fame and all that good stuff. A good man wouldn't torch a town for plunder, an evil man would.
>>46355438
secretly
NEXT QUESTION
>>46356042
evil is a made up notion when you're a dick.
NEXT QUESTION
>>46356114
neutral, he is uprooting tradition and order in exchange for liberation
NEXT QUESTION
>>46356178
>Evil is more method rather than ends
I like that explanation.
>>46355438
Evil characters can still have loved ones and friends.
Lie, cheat, scheme, and steal your way to the party's benefit and they'll have a hard time refusing the help. Captive won't talk? Make up a bullshit errand for the others and let him know exactly what you'll do to his family if you don't get what you want.
When they get back give them the information but don't tell them how you got it.
Blood magic, mind control, straight up bribery and corruption are all available options. Take an ends justify the means approach. You'll need to be the hardest working member of the party if you want to get and stay ahead of both the law and their suspicions.
No sacrifice is too great, no goal unatrainable withour enough effort. Be unscrupulous in where you obtain power. You'll pray to any god that will listen, deal with the shadiest of arms dealers and merchants, even sell your soul if that's what it takes.
Being good is hard and often unrewarding. Why shouldn't you sell your defeated foes into slavery to finance your adventures? Hey, stopping the dragon from destroying the world is more important than the lives of a few worthless peasants who are in your way.
Evil isn't about always acting like a Saturday morning cartoon villain, it's about doing whatever it takes to achieve your goals. A Good character is constrained by his alignment, an evil one is liberated by his.
If there's a simple solution that pleases all present don't try and shoehorn in some puppy kicking or orphanage burning, that's stupid. Evil is selfish, not stupid. Evil can still care or have feelings, it's just an evil character will act in the extreme to protect his interests.
Doing Evil should be tempting and doing Good should be hard. Games fuck up moral choice because both options lead to the same outcome, making evil stupid and sociopathic. Evil options that give more loot, gold, and XP at the cost of morality will tempt players and make then question their own choices
>>46356651
That makes evil by default the smarter choice
Where's the downside
>>46356698
Everyone distrusts you, and the paladin is constantly poking you in the chest with his index while repeating you can be better than that, that you just have to try.
>>46356698
The downside is that you sacrifice morality for your own personal gain.
Morality, a conscience and being a good person is enough reason for most people to avoid sociopathic behavior even if it would benefit them with little risk of getting caught.
You could rob homeless and beggars for money and almost certainly never be caught, let alone prosecuted successfully. Doesn't mean you're not an awful person for doing it.
Good vs Evil is a choice between retaining morals at the expense of power or reward.
The fact most players are total murder hobos who ignore the fact their characters don't know they're in a game and therefore lack all morality and are obvious sociopaths is just an unfortunate side effect of incomplete immersion and suspension of disbelief that's a fundamental limit of the medium
>>46356698
You're more likely to make smart enemies.
>>46356698
The downside is that you're fucking evil, will cultivate justified paranoia, push away all your loved ones or get them harmed in the process of your climb to power and you'll probably die alone and hated unless you're one of very very few who reach the top of the food chain and become something like an Evil deity, Demon lord, ancient vampire or lich, etc.
The upper limit to where you can go as long as you're willing to do anything to get there is vast, the question is whether you'll survive the journey to omnipotence.
Most don't.
>>46355438
Just be a selfish dick who's only in it for the money.
>>46356213
I always thought of it the other way around, with law/Chaos as the means and good/Evil as the ends.
>>46355886
I feel like Chaotic Evil is best summarized by Chaos, they have a goal, kinda, and really they don't give a damn about anyone/thing that steps between them and their macguffin
>>46355886
Just play chaotic evil as a more petty kind.
"Sure, I'm a dickhead, but I like the world! I've done some of my best dickishness here!"
>>46355438
You be more subtle.
Take notes from people like the bombers of Brussels, he campaigned against islamophobia when he and his buddy didn't really give a shit about it at all and just wanted to conquer and rape heathen Europe.
So, y'know, lying.
>>46355886
Evil: Sacrifice others to serve your own ends.
Chaotic: Systems of law and order just get in the way.
My last (successful) CE character was a cleric whose divine power depended on him eating the flesh of his foes. Eat a man's heart, gain his strength. That kind of thing.
But he and the other PCs had a common enemy, so they put their differences aside and worked together. He didn't shove his cannibalism in their face, and they didn't ride him too hard about his "trophy-taking".
It was generally agreed upon that once this was all over, they'd either all back away slowly without taking their eyes off each other, or they'd all go full retard and end the standoff once and for all.
My second to last was Goat Wizard who just wanted to munch on trash and didn't give a fuck who got in his way. Not with his program. Lightning bolt, motherfucker. The rest of the party gave him a wide berth, and respected his charge and trample in combat.
>tfw when your spellcaster has the best climb stat in the party.
