RP Advice: How should I play this character

[atemu1234]

A character I've been working on for a campaign has the following backstory:
- His father was a middle-ranking noble and a human supremacist (Footnote 1)
- He trained the character since infancy to be an effective combatant.
- The training was definitely, 100% footed in abuse, and the character has little to no empathy (partially characteristic of DSMIV-V disorders). This isn't what makes the character evil; mostly just the wanton murder and torture.
- He killed his entire family (father, mother and younger sister), spending nearly a week straight torturing his father.

Footnote 1: In this world a human government is attempting to wipe out/slaughter all nonhuman races.

How should I play this? It's my backup character in case my current one dies, and I'd like to have a plan?

[EldritchWeaver]

Sounds to me as if violence is the first and second solution to all problems. The bouncer is your way? Kill him. The beggar doesn't want to spill the beans? Break his legs. Then kill him, because its bad to leave a witness. The real question is, why such a character would be willing to join a party and not try to kill everyone else.

[Name1]

You do know he's still Evil, right?
You should play him as a character on a quest for power who is a bit racist, but if the entire empire is like that, that's to be expected and you can (and should) try to have him look like he tries to get rid of it. When he has power... well, then he slaughters people.

[Karl Aegis]

They have vowed to never kill again as a final act of defiance against their father.

[dascarletm]

Let me ask you this:

Why did he kill his little sister and mother?

According to your backstory there is not blatant motive to murder them, and I assume if your father was abusive to you he would be abusive to them. The motive behind your killing of them may be more telling to your character's psychology.

EDIT:
Second Question:
What was your character's internal response after killing his father? Remorse? Sickness in what you had become? Gratification?

[atemu1234]

They have vowed to never kill again as a final act of defiance against their father.

Interesting, but still.

He's definitely, 100% evil, and he has next to no personal drive or desires; he doesn't want to kill all the nonhumans like his father did, but apart from that he has no goals. He wants a direction - he'll go along with anyone who can give him a purpose, and a use for his 'talents' - namely torture.

Edit:

Let me ask you this:

Why did he kill his little sister and mother?

According to your backstory there is not blatant motive to murder them, and I assume if your father was abusive to you he would be abusive to them. The motive behind your killing of them may be more telling to your character's psychology.

EDIT:
Second Question:
What was your character's internal response after killing his father? Remorse? Sickness in what you had become? Gratification?

A1: He killed them because they never stopped his father. He killed them in their sleep; his father he tortured to death.

A2: I don't really think he knows how to react - his emotions are buried deep enough and he's so thoroughly dissociated from them that he doesn't even know. Maybe a kind of gratification, but not satisfaction.

[nintendoh]

Have him find relegion. Hexor or that god of slaughter who is an amalgamation of the dying soldier of a giant battlefield. Erynthul or something.

[Extra Anchovies]

A character I've been working on for a campaign has the following backstory:
- His father was a middle-ranking noble and a human supremacist (Footnote 1)
- He trained the character since infancy to be an effective combatant.
- The training was definitely, 100% footed in abuse, and the character has little to no empathy (partially characteristic of DSMIV-V disorders). This isn't what makes the character evil; mostly just the wanton murder and torture.
- He killed his entire family (father, mother and younger sister), spending nearly a week straight torturing his father.

Footnote 1: In this world a human government is attempting to wipe out/slaughter all nonhuman races.

How should I play this? It's my backup character in case my current one dies, and I'd like to have a plan?

This sounds like a character who hates everyone, and has no respect for the lives of others or for his own life, because he's seen - and done - some of the worst things that people are capable of. He may not kill at the drop of a hat, and would probably be able to build meaningful (or at least mutually beneficial) relationships with others, but when attacked he'd retaliate without mercy and when threatened he'd strike first without thinking twice. He wouldn't be suicidal - while he's alive he wants to have a good life for himself and the few (if any) people he cares about - but he'd also be willing to accept a necessary but probably-fatal task without any mental agonizing, so his disregard for life could turn out to be a positive trait in a bit of a tragic way.

Torturing his father seems quite out of place, because he'd be sinking to the same level as his father's abuse. If your character doesn't care about lives, they also probably wouldn't care one way or the other about pain. Killing his family was an act of revenge for his father's abuse and his mother's and sister's willingness to stand by and not stop the father, and until all three were dead he wouldn't have his revenge. Consider having him coldly and quickly end their lives with the same weapon his father taught him (or had him taught) to use.

He'd probably be opposed to the human government's pogroms, because the humans present themselves as better than the nonhumans when your character knows that everyone's equal in their worthlessness.

[TheifofZ]

Sounds like he'd end up Neutral Evil.
He generally expects the worst of people, but won't go out of his way to use violence without a reason. (Not necessarily a good reason, but certainly not at the drop of a hat.)
Characters with that kind of history usually look for a way to keep it from happening again; questing for personal power is probably a decent start in that regard.

As to how he interacts with the party; initial interactions combined with poor expectations of the group should shape most future interaction (tainted by that racism, of course.)
Since he suffers mental disorders (the exact flavor of which you've kindly provided no general information about, except which book to find it in.) you should probably remember how those effect his interactions, too.

[CasualViking]

1: He's woved never to kill, but killing is all he knows. That's going to put a lot of strain on him; it's an interesting angle. I can imagine him bluntly asking people "I'd rather not kill you. So how do we resolve this?" over even very small issues.

2: His voyage of discovery as a well-meaning racist. On an intellectual level, he knows that his father and his KKK buddies were full of ****, but on an everyday level, he knows that halflings are compulsive kleptomaniacs.

[Mordaedil]

This dude seems like a shoe-horned in for a psychopathic assassin. The literal mysterious stranger in the tavern that drinks to dull his senses. He'll never trust anyone because he knows trust just leads to weakness and anyone he feels he grows close to, he'll cut ties with or kill before he is betrayed first. He prefers to keep things professional and he isn't annoyed by good characters as much as he pities them for the naíve veil they wear to disguise them from what he sees as the truth of the world. He isn't even motivated by money, but people will likely see him as that and he prefers that they do, because it keeps them far away. He rarely speaks and when he speaks, he rarely says anything truthful. It's all mired in sarcasm and lies.

This guy doesn't seem much like a PC, more like a DM character tbqh.

[bookkeeping guy]

Well this guy would technically be CE.

As in chaotic evil.

If you can kill your sister and mother and not even blink...

Um may I suggest you change this character?

Your friends aren't going to take it well about the family members being offed with dad and this guy sounds like he's a bit too happy to gut people's innards.

[Thaneus]

Truth be told, i find it a bit plain.
Being tortured by his father for years and trained with a weapon and disciplined throughout, he has no drive? No Motivation at all? Then he would not have killed anyone and stayed there put and following orders.
If his drive is just survive -> kills the damn excuse of the father and leave. But don't wast time on torture or kill the mother and sister, because he has no relation with them at all.
If his drive was revenge -> then the killing as described for the father is appropriate as in an eye for an eye, but for the mother and the sister, he should ask them "why?" and judge afterwards because revenge needs a cause.
If he is just the plain killing machine described with INT below 3 -> open findish codex or mm for all demons and be done with it, they make a better job and have at least the reason of destruction and slaughter
Other path you could take with this background: Lawful Evil; kill with a code, be not like his father, find salvation by all means; Neutral: He just don't care anymore and really just want to life in peace but needs to earn money; Evil: with might comes power and with power comes security, your own security.
These are but a few examples i could image with more detailed background, like, did in some instance someone try to save him, but was punished? a servant or maid? or even his sister? Or was he in a closed of room, shut in all day and night in his fathers dungeon? Did he ever tried break free and flee but was stopped? Did he tried to kill his father in the training? Such questions need to be answered at least to separate this mindless killing machine you descried from an intelligent being.

[dascarletm]

Well this guy would technically be CE.

As in chaotic evil.

If you can kill your sister and mother and not even blink...


Chaotic and Lawful Evil are no more or less evil than one another. Chaos/Law is methodology, not morality.