Evil campaign character gimmicks

[Zaninel]

I would just like to see what characters people would make and play in an evil campaign and what kind of behavior they would have. For example: A halfling ranger/barbarian with no ranks in Survival who veiws any and every enemy as walking XP and refer's to himself as a sexy shoeless god of war.

[WeaselGuy]

I'm currently playing in a campaign that can be considered evil, to a degree. The setting is post-protagonists failed at saving the world, now we're living under accepted evil rulership. Alignments don't really mean so much, in an "ends justify the means" and "might makes right" environment. My current character is a DMM:P Cleric of Tiamat, agent of the Crown, who reports on the party's dealings and interactions to the Dragon Queen and the Crown itself. I'm not above intimidating others into giving me the resources I need "or else I'll tell the Overlord", and I don't waste my time praying for the spells to heal others. If they weren't strong enough to stay alive, they aren't worth keeping alive.

Before that, I played a Kobold Lancer that rode on a Dire Weasel, and before him it was a Tiefling Paladin of Tyranny/Warrior of Darkness. Next on the list is either an Artificer or an Ur-Lock, depends on how far we make it before I die again. I have a high mortality rate at our table.

My wife is playing a Drow - Reincarnated as a Sun Elf - Sorceress who's motto seems to be "How much fire resistance do you have? And you have Evasion? I cast Fireball into the room, the rogue will be fine".

My buddy (and the source of my demise twice now) is playing a Psion who made a pact with a devil to gain some factor of cheese. As a condition of the pact, he had to sacrifice one of his companions to the Dark Lord Asmodeous. He chose my Kobold and mind controlled me off a tower.

TL;DR, do stuff you wouldn't normally get away with, like playing an Ur-Priest or a Blackguard, don't worry about friendly fire, that's what potions are for. Take the opportunity to play "evil" races or those classes with negative stigmas to them. Crack open BoVD or Fiend Folio, or look at all the wonderful poisons that Craft (Alchemy) can give to your Assassin.

[Doc_Maynot]

"Granny Crow" She's a ghost utilizing a few ghostwalk feats to appear living. She is an old creature that is trying to plunge the world into "the veil" as she calls it. "A place on the other side of death, a place of freedom and truth." She goes around inducting people to her beliefs through her tools. Her tools are Enchantments, Illusions, and Necromancy. Using the Charm Person+Hypnotism thing "Serve me and you will be eternally rewarded." Using Necromancy to raise creatures as Corpse creatures, tending to make villages believe she can bring the dead "back from the veil" and she uses it to offer a kind of limited immortality. Tends to bring order to villages and their surrounding creatures, sometimes is the one who starts it so that one sides is more inclined to listen to her when she "helps fix" the situation.

~"There are many things in the dark. Peace is not one of them."

[Kelb_Panthera]

It's unlikely but it'd be cool if I could get a chance to play my soul-broker idea.

It's a fairly typical scoundrelous rogue/wizard hybrid but the character hook is that, when the opportunity arises, he signs a faustian pact that authorizes him to draw up faustian pacts with other mortals and gets commisions based on the souls he damns.

What? When I do evil, I don't screw around.

[tadkins]

I would probably play some kind of LE dominatrix type spellcaster, focusing on control and building an army of mind-controlled slaves.

[Val666]

Redfel where are ya

[Kid Jake]

The Pathfinder campaign journal in my signature has an all evil party. It consists of a LE cleric of Asmodeous who's main motivation in life seems to be making sure that everything runs smooth and orderly; and a deranged thug with an unwarranted messiah complex who spends half the time accidentally unleashing biblical plagues on the world and the other half convincing people that he wouldn't hurt a fly, unless it was to protect a more innocent fly, and that everything wrong with the world is an elven conspiracy.

[Optimator]

I've had a couple memorable evil characters over the years. I have a Arabian assassin dual-wielding melee blender Swordsage (with a Warblade dip) named Al' Rashid (100% ripped off from Mace: The Dark Age), A crossbow sniper who runs an assassin/thieves guild, a Psyforged Warblade named Wrath with a passion for murder and a very Blade Runner-inspired story of being a warforged who hunted wayward warforged, an Indiana Jones-esque bugbear treasure hunter (Rogue 4 Ranger 1 Shade Hunter 5) in a post-apocalyptic wasteland full of magic items, a Necropolitian pirate Rogue 3 Hexblade 3 Avenging Executioner 4 Ghost-Faced Killer 2, a half-orc Druid with both the Druidic Avenger and Wis-to-AC variants who worships an evil nature god, carries a glaive, and roams the forests looking for "prey".

[atemu1234]

Khaius; a dragonborn who swore himself to tiamat, who preserved his form. Paladin of tyranny.

[Red Fel]

Redfel where are ya

I go away for a few days, and look what I miss!

Alright, I'll jump in. There are one or two concepts I've been percolating. Allow me to share one with you.

First, let me offer a quote, to establish the concept:
And now at last it comes. You will give me the Ring freely! In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair!

This is a concept I've long wanted to play with. The idea of a beloved tyrant. A horrifying person that the world nonetheless adores; a soulless monarch who makes no attempt to disguise his nature, but who nonetheless is beloved by people the world over. They don't love him because he's good for them, because he isn't; they don't love him because he creates order, because he doesn't; they love him because he's just such a sweetheart.

I want the Mayor from Buffy, but more. I want someone who genuinely cares about people. Someone sincerely warm and lovable. Someone funny and endearing. Someone who will bring about total destruction, but do it in the most polite, kind, charming way possible. Not a sleazy kind of sinister, but the kind of person who hugs children in the street, who smiles at them even as he slides in the knife.

I want the person whose atrocities, while not infrequent, are nonetheless jarring, every single time, because everyone loves him so gosh-darn much.

I want the character who keeps an Evil party together, not by force or manipulation or coercion, but because he's genuinely friends with them, and they with him, and he genuinely wants to help them, and he sincerely believes that they are stronger together than apart, and once he has sacrificed this entire world upon the altar of his dread master, they can all serve by his side, because he genuinely cares. And despite his monstrous acts, they will be shocked that he had his own self-interests in mind all along, but also touched that he honestly believes he's helping them at the same time.

That's what I want to build.

[Vhaidara]

I go away for a few days, and look what I miss!

*epic evilness*

That's what I want to build.

That, as usual, was beautiful.

Good to have you back.

[A.A.King]

I like the idea of a character who is very patient and very knowledgeable. I'm sure you know the concept of the trader who when he trades increases his net value by only a small amount but eventually ends up with high value stuff. The kind of guy who trades away his old bicycle but ends up with a new Mercedes. I want to play that guy but with favours. It's not about what you can do, but who you know and what they can do. You gain powerful allies by trading away less powerful allies until eventually the most powerful people in the world are in your pocket. You keep these people in your pocket by having some kind of hold over them, maybe you know a dark secret the King doesn't want anybody to know or maybe you can have the neighbouring kingdom launch an attack by simply calling in a different favour. Just make sure you're a master of fear and that you always know something the other party doesn't, make them think they are getting the better deal and that if they don't accept all hell will break lose.

It's not about ruling the world with an iron fist, it's about controlling the people who everybody else think are ruling the world. You just have to wait and slowly get there.