Alignment; The meanest good, and the nicest evil?

[Xuldarinar]

The questions I pose are as follows;


How nice can an evil character be, while retaining that evil alignment (and which alignment would they be)?

Alternatively, how mean can a good character be while retaining their good alignment?



I want to see the extremes of these notions.Just how... pleasant, benign seeming even, can an evil character be and still maintain that evil alignment, and how cruel and mean spirited a good aligned character can be and still be considered good? This is an exercise to see.. where do we think the lines are drawn? For instance, can an evil character clearly value life, being so far as a pacifist, but still somehow manage to be listed as evil?

[Arbane]

I'm not sure this question even makes sense. You can be the nicest person in the world to those you care about, and even to random people on the street, and still flay the occasional person alive because your demonic masters require it.

Evil, at least, tends to follow the old adage: "If you put a spoonful of wine in a barrel of sewage, you get a barrel of sewage. If you put a spoonful of sewage in a barrel of win, you get a barrel of sewage."

[noob]

You do not need to do evil acts at all to be evil.
You could have only done good things for all your life and still be evil.

[Balmas]

I'd consider looking through the pages of Good is Not Nice (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GoodIsNotNice) and Affably Evil (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AffablyEvil) for your answers. Fair warning: TvTropes ahead.

[Lord Vukodlak]

Avoiding real world examples
Lets look at the Operative from Serenity. If he can't get to you he'll kill everyone else around you to either leave you no ground to go to or to incite you to surrender. He even admits that what he does is evil and there is no place for him in the better world he's helping to build. However he's soft-spoken, courteous and willing to talk things before resorting to violence.

[Âmesang]

During the few times my last group role-played I attempted to portray my evil-character as perfectly benevolent and beneficent… while mentally treating all of those around her as little more than pawns or tools to be used to further her own dark purposes; she's well aware that there is safety and numbers, and actively working against the party just because "evil" only ensures that she'd soon have two sets of enemies gunning for her. It's in her best interests to keep her meatshields allies alive and well so as to bolster her own capabilities… or draw away enemy fire.

That's why I find Charisma/Bluff to be so fun; subtly twisting words and minds, even comitting wanton murder agaisnt those who's only crime seemed little more than petty larceny and graffiti (the goblins from the second chapter of The Shackled City Adventure comes to mind), and not only getting away with it but being praised/rewarded for it!

Just because you're chaotic-evil doesn't mean you have to be chaotic-stupid. Besides, I'd say it'd be well worth the wait to see the looks on their faces when the sorceress they thought was so sweet suddenly recreates the Invoked Devastation…

(Granted, I suppose it's harder to portray oneself as "good" when your familiar is a demon. :smalltongue:)