Need help on character concept for an "Evil Overlord" type of campaign

[Sander]

Hey playgrounders!
Shortly, I'll embark on a new campaign where the players are evil minions of a relatively weak overlord. The goal of the campaign (likely 5-15-ish level-wise) is then to improve the strength and stature of the minions' evil overlord! Now, I've never played an evil character before, nor have I ever actually felt I wanted to. I'm usually the paladin or some such. So, my question is: Do you guys have any interesting builds and/or character concepts that would fit well with this type of campaign? The DM is fairly laissez faire, but don't count on the Death Cleric or Oathbreaker Paladin being available, sadly. So... any evil masterminds lurking about? :smallbiggrin:

[Moosoculars]

Surprisingly a lore bard can make a very thematic bad guy and I have used this to great effect. All of the bards spells are spoken attacks or can be read as such. Imagine a merciless taskmaster who orders his minions around with an acid tongue. All of his spells and abilities are cast with an insult

Vicious mockery - look at him! He can't even fight
Song of rest is a stream of insults on how they were stupid to get wounded.
Cutting words - call that an attack my gran could do better
healing word - stop lying down get up!
Heroism - you can do better than that, come on, get them!

You get the idea. Dissonant whispers, crown of madness, fear, suggestion, confusion, dominate person etc.

Make him a manipulator with skills as well. persuasion, deception, insight - two with expertise. And add detect thoughts clairvoyance and enhance ability and you have a very strong negotiator - manipulator who knows your darkest secrets.

Fellow pcs will love the effects you deliver but hate the style in which you deliver them. Perfect (helpful) and evil character.

[Douche]

Being a low int barbarian is pretty fun when you're evil.

Just be really stupid and obedient, never question when someone orders you to go slaughter that village. Solve all your problems with violence, no one can even get mad at you for it when you're evil!

[BladeWing81]

What ever you do, you need to start your adventure with:
but everything changed when "X" attacked!

[BaronOfTheGate]

Honestly, I would play a rogue who (besides stabbing) likes poisoning his adversaries drinks.

[ravenkith]

Hey playgrounders!
Shortly, I'll embark on a new campaign where the players are evil minions of a relatively weak overlord. The goal of the campaign (likely 5-15-ish level-wise) is then to improve the strength and stature of the minions' evil overlord! Now, I've never played an evil character before, nor have I ever actually felt I wanted to. I'm usually the paladin or some such. So, my question is: Do you guys have any interesting builds and/or character concepts that would fit well with this type of campaign? The DM is fairly laissez faire, but don't count on the Death Cleric or Oathbreaker Paladin being available, sadly. So... any evil masterminds lurking about? :smallbiggrin:

ANIMATE DEAD/CREATE UNDEAD
Animate dead is always a crowd pleaser when it comes to 'being evil', and it fits the concept of your character trying to find ways to increase the power of your evil overlord.

Of course, the REAL benefit to having undead slaves is that you can use them both as an army AND as an undead work force. They don't have to breathe, rest, eat, or drink, and can be set to perform repetitive tasks indefinitely. Traditionally horribly lethal tasks such as mining, underwater salvage and fighting wars can be safely done by the dead.

Combine this for example, with animate objects, conjurations, illusions and the like to enable your character to become a real 'force multiplier'.

POISON

Poison use is almost always considered evil. At the very least, it is considered dishonorable and underhanded. In 5e, especially after the DMG errata, there are some nifty tricks that you can employ with regard to poison.

Point 1: After the errata, each dose of poison is good for a single use, but after application, it lasts until the first hit. This removal of an artificial time limit on the usefulness of poison is a massive boon to those of us who like to plan ahead.

As an example of a way to exploit this...
Step 1: Acquire multiple doses of poison*.
Step 2: Apply poison to arrows.
Step 3: Cast animate objects on 10 arrows, which become 1d4+4 living objects with 30ft fly speeds.
Step 4: Send animated arrows to attack nearby targets, thus triggering the poison effects.
Step 5: Rinse and repeat as necessary.

*Bonus points on this one if the poison effect conveys paralysis, which then allows you to unleash the zombie hordes on a group of targets that are incapable of resisting.

Note that poison can be crafted, or harvested. Harvesting involves getting your hands on a critter with poison, either incapacitating or killing it, then spending time and making checks, at least under normal circumstances.

I submit to you, that harvesting poison from creatures would be a trivial task for you if they were were, instead of incapacitated or dead, cooperative.

Imagine the act of milking a snake for it's poison (see youtube for details, it's a real thing).

Now imagine that the snake bites what you tell it to bite, every 6 seconds.

Alternatively, this could be a great use of the fabricate spell, depending on what your DM allows.

Note that I'm sure that there are many exploitable combos here, but I haven't had the time to explore them.

For example, if any creature has a poison attack, in theory it could be summoned/dominated and harvested in order to gain access to that poison with relative ease.
Similarily, true polymorph has no limit on what you can turn something into: with this spell, it is possible to turn an ally into a wyvern or a purple worm and harvest free poison that way. Shapechange also could work.

SLAVERY/MIND CONTROL

Slavery, especially with mind control thrown in for good measure, is almost always regarded as evil. I haven't actually researched the viability of this in the current edition, but am aware of a couple of means of getting some kind of slavery going. First, there is the warlock's thrall ability at level 14. Second, there is the GEAS spell, which first becomes available as a 5th level spell. You can also Dominate, but the durations on these spells are pretty damn short. Suggestion and mass suggestion seem like they might be worthwhile as they scale, but lack a decent command interface.

The gold standard here is going to be modify memory, I think: You can actually go in and change the memories of a given target, instilling loyalty to you in them that can varies in depth according to level of the spell used.

Bonus points here if you tie the slavery into some sort of warding bond effect (if you get hurt, the slaves get hurt too).

Enjoy!

[Spacehamster]

IF he allows oath breaker then go for 8 oath breaker 7 necromancer and be the lord of the dead, take the feat that lets you give temp hp by giving a speech, put rest on ASI STR and CHA. :)

Probably take intimidation and deception, he is very charismatic and intimidating but in the end prefers the company of the dead(at least they do as you say!).

[lebefrei]

An evil bard can be played as a terrible bastard. They can be like Kilgrave from Jessica Jones, controlling anyone with no thought nor care for their well being.

All pure martials play evil easily.

Tempest and War clerics are great at being evil, and you can really roleplay their fervor and ferocity. Trickery can be a prankster gone terrible, and even Light can be a scouring desert sun.

Druids as nature's vengeance play neutral evil quite well. All sentient beings are a risk to the natural balance... Cleanse the world, including your master some day (unless he has your same vision).

Evil monks are a lesson in discipline. They're a great choice for roleplaying controlled cruelty.

Oath of the Crown could be an evil paladin with your master as your king. The kiss ass of the group.

Warlock, wizard and sorcerer are about as obvious as your martials. You could consider your master your Patron as a Warlock. If he isn't terribly powerful, reflect that by being unable to level up until the master also gains more power.

[CovertCobalt]

Given the general nature of PC adventuring parties, I think it's fairly likely that you and your group may want to kill and supplant your "Evil Overlord" at some point down the line and take his/her place. If that idea appeals to you, you may want to consider any information your DM has given you about this Overlord and use it to guide what sort of replacement he/she may be susceptible to.

Moreover, creating a character that fits in with the Overlord's theme from the start makes your character easy to integrate int the beginning story and will make for some great plot hooks along the way.

For example, a conquest-driven warlord-type might operate under the 'Might is Right" point-of-view, and so a powerful martial warrior who could someday defeat him/her in a duel may be a fun choice.

An Asmodeus-worshiping, Devil-binding Warlock might be a scheming, power-hungry individual driven by ambition, and so a Cleric of Asmodeus could be an interesting foil to him/her.

[Kane0]

Shadow sorcerer is a fun choice, especially with the black dog at level 6.
Monk of the long death also makes for a splendid evil character.

[DiceDiceBaby]

Here's a radical idea I came up with this morning (though from a DM-worldbuilding perspective; if you just want character ideas, just go with the ones listed from 1 to 8 and skip the rest):

Your Evil Overlady (no one said that the BBEGirl has to be male) is in charge of a fortress, a sizable amount of troops, and a small empire, and wishes to expand. To this end, the Overlady appoints a group of adventurers champions as her knights to carry out her will and expand her evil empire.

Among your cast of characters are the following (from which you can draw a character concept you want):

1) Someone related to the BBEG (possibly a scheming younger brother or sister)
2) Someone hired by the BBEG (a mercenary who is only in this for the money)
3) Someone with a close emotional tie to the BBEG (a wicked love interest or a childhood best friend)
4) Someone secretly working for the rebels opposing the BBEG (a double agent with a Good alignment; Charlatan or Spy background, pretending to be Evil, but is, in fact, a decent and upright person)
5) Someone secretly working for another BBEG (a double agent with an Evil alignment; Charlatan or Spy background, working for another Evil NPC in another kingdom, who wants his rival dead)
6) Someone who genuinely believes in the cause of the BBEG (an unwavering, fanatical and loyal servant)
7) Someone who is the BBEG's favorite (the right hand-man or woman, or the bodyguard prima interpares)
8) Someone who used to be a hero and now lost all hope and took the BBEG's offer of evil

Who may all be secretly trying to usurp, overthrow, or assasinate the Overlady for their own ends (power, control, saving the kingdom), but cannot do so openly without challenging the other champions and arousing suspicion.

The objective of this character-driven campaign is to fulfill the Overlady's decrees and their duties to each other, to openly work together and pretend to like each other, while secretly finding the opportune time to betray the other members of the party and take over (the very opposite of a normal campaign) to fulfill their own end. This will naturally involve a lot of DM coordination with each player individually, but the backstabbing, paranoia, political intrigue, etc. would be well worth it, if your table is into that sort of thing.

Of course, the BBEG is paranoid and assumes that everyone will eventually be out to get her, so they have to be careful and compartmentalized, perhaps sent on different quests, unless totally necessary.

In return for their service, the Overlady gives them titles (for bonus points, theme titles after precious stones or other group concepts, i.e. the Emerald Knight, the Sapphire Archer, etc.), access to land, and a small squad of mooks to do their bidding.

For added ideas, you can create a team of NPCs which would be a standard adventuring party that opposes the BBEG, led by a BGGG (Big Good Good Guy) and a team of "shadow counterparts" who are the antithesis of the Overlady's champions. They are protecting the neighboring kingdoms from the tyrrany of the Evil Overlady, and ultimately wish to destroy her and her champions.

Additionally, if you don't want just drama, but moral dilemmas, too, make the things that your players have to do to please your Evil Overlady (and cement her rule in the kingdom) actions that would be heinous and wicked things your players would never do in reality, but are forced to do here.

Will the players really raise a village full of innocent women and children to the ground?
Will the players execute the head of a lawful good religion that opposes the evil deity you all worship?
How will the secretly good character fulfill these actions without raising suspicion from the others?
How will a character disobey your Overlady's rule but still be able to gain her favor?
How far are they each willing to go to fulfill their quests and objectives?

Then reward characters for seemingly following the decrees to the letter, and punish them for not doing so. If they find another way to solve the problem, it had better be justified ("Why should we slaughter the village of farmers? Putting them under the control of a harsh taskmaster is better for our economy; we get food, and control the region! No sense putting good hands to waste!") or the Evil Overlady will get.... upset.

If your table is into this kind of cloak-and-dagger social campaigning with moral dilemmas and very intense plot-based ethical debates, then feel free to use these ideas.

EDIT - TL;DR - "Evil" in D&D means being selfish and ambitious. Why not play an "Evil" character by wanting to get rid of the Overlord and his allies (the PCs) for your own ends and lust for power?