Spitballing evil

[wulfire]

Hi Playgrounders, I’m looking for some generous souls to help with class ideas for an evil character.

Let me explain: My DM recently had an idea for a 1st level campaign where each player plays an evil character. Each player will write down their "evil plot" of sorts, whatever the main goal of their character is. The game will play out until one of the PCs manages to achieve his goal. Each player will generally act as a group, secretly plotting, lying, manipulating while also trying to hide their motives from the others so no one screws up their plans.

So I looked at making a Vashar Dread Necromancer, who wanted nothing more than deicide, making use of all the minion making and controlling available and maybe manipulating the other evil characters to believe that we were more powerful etc.

That’s when I spoke to the DM, in order to clarify that there were plenty of undead creatures to be thrown at the group. The answer was a resounding no. In fact he told me that this world is being overran by demons as the demon plane now exists at the same place as the material plane.

So with the first 8 levels of a DN now being a complete waste, I cannot for the life of me think of a potential evil character, that can manipulate others, hold their own against other PCs and be extremely evil all at the same time.

Any and all ideas are most welcome!

[daremetoidareyo]

The stupefaction of the prime material plane. Perhaps your evil character sees that the real problem with the universe is that it has too many minds in it. The only way for the universe to be purified is to remove all voluntary thought. No thought; no suffering, no struggle, no winners, no losers.

Now there are a couple of ways to go about this:
NE druid that wants to incorporate all creatures into a greater hive mind (alienist, vermin associations, merging all life with plants)
LE cleric with access to sun domain who hopes to drag the entire planet into the sun
Mage that dominates/magic jars everything he possibly can and keeps all those souls in a collection, or perhaps he sends his victims astral and has githyanki robbers who trap them in the astral by cutting their chords
CN barbarian crusader who just kills everyone he can that is weaker than him.
Some sort of ooze master that wants to make this the planet of ooze.

[dascarletm]

I like the idea above me, but I'd tweak it to go along the lines of a telepath.

Your goal is to turn everyone into an automaton or a mind seeded version of yourself (if they are worthy). Perhaps thrallherd will work well with this.

Remember: everyone is beneath you, and exist solely to be your puppets.

[Red Fel]

So with the first 8 levels of a DN now being a complete waste, I cannot for the life of me think of a potential evil character, that can manipulate others, hold their own against other PCs and be extremely evil all at the same time.

Any and all ideas are most welcome!

Sorry, you missed my birthday by a month. Still, I forgive you... For now. Let's get started, shall we?

I won't discuss classes or mechanics. That's up to you. Instead, I want to give you something. It's nothing much. Just an idea. A concept. And it's free. Completely free. Because I care. I want you to succeed. Because when you succeed, we all succeed. And when we all succeed, I succeed.

Understand yet? Let me clarify. The concept is so simple it's almost impossible for people to pinpoint. It's this: You're playing an evil schemer whose goal, very simply, is to acquire power. Which is the goal of every villain ever. But the how is the interesting part. You want to make yourself an indispensable part of your allies' lives. Not necessarily by being stronger than they are, or smarter, but simply so integral to their lives that they can't think of life without you. And you want to help them achieve power. Because you care. You want them to succeed. Because when they succeed, they get stronger. And you want strong allies, because that means you're stronger, too.

So you maneuver them. Make sure they get everything they want. And make sure that they remember who helped. Don't be rude or pushy about it. Be pleasant. Be helpful and friendly. Hell, be lovable if you can pull it off. Give the impression of being the least evil person in that party. Be the morality pet if it gets them to like you more.

Do they reject your help? Find a way to help them succeed without them knowing. Do they refuse to acknowledge your help? Make sure there's an audience, so that if they refuse, they come across as the jerk. But always be smiling. Always supportive. Always friendly.

And everywhere you go, take care of things. Be the party face. Be the one people see, the one people identify. Take the flack for the party, confront the terrified masses. Always smiling, this time creepy. In time, the world will simply assume that you're the one in charge, the rest are just your lackies. Don't correct the world, but don't show off, either. Just smile, and remind your party that, no matter what happens, you're just trying to help them succeed. They're your friends, after all. And as your party's reputation grows, yours will, since you're the face. Use that. Build a stronghold - for the benefit of the party, naturally. Establish a kingdom. A military. An empire. Never refer to yourself as Emperor, of course; behind closed doors, concede to the party in all things. But be the authority the rest of the world sees.

And when the time comes to ask who has succeeded, that's when you make your big reveal. Tell them how glad you are that they've helped you. How happy you are that your friends are so happy. How pleased you are that they've served you so loyally. Do it right, and this last one will be a spit-take moment. Never stop smiling and being friendly, but explain that you've been using them all along. And now that you've amassed reputation and authority, you don't really need them anymore, but it would be wonderful if they would continue to serve you loyally, as they have been. Because they're your friends and you care about them, and you want them to stay with you. And you don't want to have them executed as enemies of the crown.

Isn't friendship just sublime?

[atemu1234]

kick all the puppies!

[Ettina]

If you grab a Mother Cyst (http://dndtools.eu/feats/libris-mortis-the-book-of-undead--71/mother-cyst--1984/), you can start using Necrotic Domination (http://dndtools.eu/spells/libris-mortis-the-book-of-undead--71/necrotic-domination--1489/) at level 4. It works like dominate person, but you have to have implanted a cyst in them (http://dndtools.eu/spells/libris-mortis-the-book-of-undead--71/necrotic-cyst--1488/) and they get no saving throw. There's no limit to how many guys you can put cysts in, either, so you can pretty easily rack up a nice bunch of encysted minions. For added fun, trick your party members into getting cysts from you!

[wulfire]

Thanks for the ideas. Definately a step in the right direction.

Red Fel, I loved your concept. And I think I should be able to carry that off, with a little bit of work. But I as everyone is going to be evil I don't think they would care if they came across a s a jerk if they refused my help.

And with Ettina's help I could link that nicely in with the the Cysts, only explaining the Scrying spell for their benefit.

Atemu1234, If I told my DM that my goal was to kick all the puppies the only one he would bring into the game will be a Moon Dog, and I ain't kicking that!!

Daremetoidareyo, I definately like the idea of going somewhere with a collection of souls. I think there is a something out there that can work, I'll look into this possibility more.

Dascarletm, I haven't played as a telepath before, so I'm not sure how this would work. Another one to research though, so thanks!

[Seto]

Just how big of an evil goal are we talking here ? Because, while most of the ideas presented here are nice, all of them (except Red Fel's) play on a cosmic scale. Which is kinda awesome, but maybe you need to make sure (via DM) that all the players are on the same page, because if your evil goal is "extinguish all life on the Material plane" and one of your teammates' is "become a Lich" or "bring down the church of Heironeous", you're sure to lose.

[wulfire]

Just how big of an evil goal are we talking here ? Because, while most of the ideas presented here are nice, all of them (except Red Fel's) play on a cosmic scale. Which is kinda awesome, but maybe you need to make sure (via DM) that all the players are on the same page, because if your evil goal is "extinguish all life on the Material plane" and one of your teammates' is "become a Lich" or "bring down the church of Heironeous", you're sure to lose.

Seto, As far as I can make out (through subtlety and feigning non-interest) some of the other characters are going to a half Minotaur Barbar that wants to kill everything in sight, a dwarf/gnome type creature acting as a 'Rumpelstiltskin' collecting peoples favours and wishes (unsure of their final goal) and a Begulier than wants to usurp control from the top Demon of the world.

But why not set a goal that's out of this world? The bigger and more outlandish, the better!