villain acting

[Gerner]

My Lawful evil villain, who is a fallen Paladin of Tyr. (Game setting D&D 3.5 Faurun), is plotting to undermined the new lords in a town. So she can become ruler of the town.
Right now I am thinking that she would start a plague or destroy the crops, making the new leadership look weak to the town. But I would like some other idea’s as well, as I don’t think that it is something a lawful char would do?

The PC’s will of cause follow the trail back to some of the villain’s minors.

[hymer]

Avoiding the whole 'what a lawful character would do', maybe I'd look at what the lawful character would like to be known for. How about making the town's lords look incompetent in dealing with raiders or thieves? These, of course, have been sent by the LE ex-pally, though they won't all know this is why they're doing it. Her intent, then, is to step in at the right moment and put the criminals/invaders down, much helped by knowing a lot about them. She will seem a saviour, and the local lords discredited.
Just a suggestion.

[KillianHawkeye]

There is no reason that a Lawful character would not destroy a town's crops or poison a well, or any similar activity. Lawfulness, or lack thereof, simply has no bearing on these activities.

[ArcturusV]

No, Lawfulness doesn't stop it. But the Goal stops it. If your goal is to rule the town yourself, you need it more or less intact. A town full of corpses doesn't do much for you. Nor one that people avoid or leave due to famine or plague.

What's would determine the situation for me is mostly a matter of timescale. If you're something like an elf who can piss away a decade out of your life, and not give a damn about it... go for a slow play. It's more likely to be successful. Establish yourself in the town. Rise up to Captain of the Watch, maybe part of the Honor Guard who is close to the leadership. Use your position to poison their minds and opinions. Nudge them into acts that are unwise for one reason or another. Create unrest with your authority and make sure the leader acts overly draconian and incompetent to that unrest. After about 10 years of this going on, you can gather up the unhappy, stage a coup, and install yourself as ruler. And people will be happy to do it.

"I'm not a dictator, it's just that I have a grumpy face," to quote a historical figure.

If your villain doesn't have time to go for a slow play, you need something faster acting, thus riskier, and thus more likely to fail. False Prophet into a full rebellion is a popular one. Creating a personality cult around your villain may work. Particularly if he still has his Tyrian gear and can appropriately fake and twist Tyr's faith to give his status seeming legitimacy.

You could also just go around and organize all the various gobbos, orcoids, humanoid bandits, etc, in the area into a makeshift army and just take the town by force. That's probably the most likely to fail due to Faerun having a ton of epic level characters that tend to "just show up" to events, from Harper Agents to Eliminister. But it's probably the quickest, dirtiest method.

None of these are outside the bounds of Lawful Evil however.

[Slipperychicken]

Exposing the leaders' weakness and vice? Like if he can make a case to the public that they're involved with a prostitution ring, that they're soft on evil beliefs (even suggest that they're sympathizers or cultists themselves), or that they can't bring justice to high-profile criminals (this proved by bribing jailors and helping the criminals escape of course), those can help turn public opinion against the status quo.


Lawful just means a clear, consistent moral code which the character lives up to. A lawful guy can have some pretty seriously messed-up beliefs (like racial or religious intolerance, misogyny, corporal punishment, genocide, etc) alongside reasonable ones (do charity, don't hurt children). He might not even like the current regime, and may work against it for any number of reasons. Almost any act can fit with a Lawful alignment, given appropriate context.


Destroying crops doesn't conflict with a Lawful alignment. It's certainly evil to deprive people of needed food, but it's not always chaotic. If he planned it out, considered the consequences, and decided this heinous atrocity was acceptable for a serious long-term goal, it could absolutely work. Even in the real world, an armed force might do things like indiscriminately burn crops and massacre people because they were ordered to (for example, Rome commanded its armed forces to burn crops and salt the land at Carthage, ruining the region's agriculture for generations), and that can make all the difference between Law and Chaos.