how to play chaotic evil?

[Joe dirt]

got an artifact recently and the detrimental properties determine my alignment everyday.... chaotic evil might be the most challenging.

so how would u play it?

[hamishspence]

"In a way that does not spoil the other party members' fun" is a good starting point:

http://www.giantitp.com/articles/tll307KmEm4H9k6efFP.html



Decide to React Differently: Have you ever had a party break down into fighting over the actions of one of their members? Has a character ever threatened repeatedly to leave the party? Often, intraparty fighting boils down to one player declaring, "That's how my character would react." Heck, often you'll be the one saying it; it's a common reaction when alignments or codes of ethics clash.

However, it also creates a logjam where neither side wants to back down. The key to resolving this problem is to decide to react differently. You are not your character, and your character is not a separate entity with reactions that you cannot control. I can't tell you how many times I've heard a player state that their character's actions are not under their control. Every decision your character makes is your decision first. It is possible and even preferable for you to craft a personality that is consistent but also accommodating of the characters the other players wish to play.

When you think about a situation, ask yourself, "Is this the only way my character can react to this?" Chances are, the answer is, "No." Try to refine your character so that you can deal with situations that conflict with your alignment/ethos without resorting to ultimatums, threats, etc. This will often mean thinking in terms of compromise and concession to your fellow players, or at the very least an agreement to disagree.

[Malifice]

Hire HBO's Troy. Watch it.

Emulate Titus Pullo..

[Angelalex242]

Pick your favorite badguy. Be it the Joker (Heath Ledger), Angelus (Buffy the vampire slayer), and ham it up. Your party will probably chain you up till you can be repaired...don't make it too hard on them. Feel free to roll some 1s on your grapple checks so you don't ruin the story. ;)

[Tanarii]

Typically, but not consistently, act with arbitrary violence, spurred on by your greed, hatred, or bloodlust.

[Vingelot]

As a character: In a way that does ruin the party's fun (within reason). That's kind of the point of the alignment, and the reason why it isn't a good idea to play it (and often isn't allowed -- Since you have it forced upon you, you don't have a choice in the matter, so it's different, of course).

As a player: Do everything you can to mitigate the impact of your character's actions. Don't play your character in the most efficient way, don't go min-maxing or rule lawyering on your character's behalf, maybe do some blunders, etc.

[BW022]

Assuming I had to play Chaotic Evil... knowing that that alignment is highly likely to see the game end as most players would use it as a license to act stupidly, scr@w over the party, conflict with other players motivations/goals, etc.

I'd talk the DM really carefully. My main goal would be set this up in a way which isn't going to likely end the campaign.

I'd then come up with some type of really selfish yet cunning type of 'deep spy' concept. They serve some type of evil entity, ruler, guild, secret society, or goal, yet are going to play spy within the party. They are going to 'act' good or at least neutral while with the party. Maybe occasionally contacting this person/creature/god and giving them longer term information in return for something. Say they are bound to serve and evil ruler of some distant kingdom. They adventure with the party, send monthly reports of the defenses/rulers/people/economy of the countries, places, etc. which they meet while adventuring with the players and in return they expect some form of payment -- preferably something not directly useful to the campaign (say land or valuables in the distant kingdom).

For the most part... the players shouldn't really think I was chaotic evil as I would be trying to act good as a cover. Maybe I'd give money to charity, talk about a good/neutral god, etc. I'd never do anything to scr@w over the party. My character would be cunning enough to know that doing so wouldn't be good for him as it would risk his life (from the party members and people/country he/she is in) and mean he couldn't gain any big reward from home. I'd give him some quirk about to cover up his activities -- always marking maps, writing about things in his journal, and writing letters to his family, or running some type of business where he ships books to his old mentor. I'd do most of my 'evil' roleplaying with the DM between sessions -- what information he is sending off, lists of key people in the area, maybe where items could be stolen later, etc. For the most part, there would be little chance the party should know, none of this would immediately impact with the players during the campaign, and none of it would directly harm the players. Maybe the DM can work in that something happens later -- based on the information I provided, months after I did so.

Idea being that you play the entire campaign without the rest of the players knowing. Maybe at the end, you sit down with them and let them know what happened. Probably the least disruptive playing of chaotic evil as it avoids direct alignment conflicts and infighting. What players don't know isn't hurting their characters.

[RazorChain]

Here this might help

glib and superficial charm
grandiose (exaggeratedly high) estimation of self
need for stimulation
pathological lying
cunning and manipulativeness
lack of remorse or guilt
shallow affect (superficial emotional responsiveness)
callousness and lack of empathy
parasitic lifestyle
poor behavioral controls
sexual promiscuity
early behavior problems
lack of realistic long-term goals
impulsivity
irresponsibility
failure to accept responsibility for own actions
many short-term marital relationships
juvenile delinquency
revocation of conditional release
criminal versatility

[hamishspence]

Remember that the character has not been CE all their adult life - an artifact has changed them to CE. So a couple of these (early behavioural problems, juvenile delinquency) won't apply.

[Tanarii]

More importantly, none of their personality traits should have changed, given what the OP said. They are still themselves in regards to Personality Trait, Ideal, Bond and Flaw.

But now instead of whatever typical alignment behavior they had as a motivation, it's gone and replaced by "act with arbritrary violence, spurred on by their greed, hatred, and bloodlust."

This should also apply to other things that aren't just personality traits. Nothing in the OP given says they won't remember who their friends and allies are.

Also the potential for conflicts between an Ideal and new Alignment makes for interesting decision making conflicts (aka roleplaying conflicts).

[RazorChain]

Remember that the character has not been CE all their adult life - an artifact has changed them to CE. So a couple of these (early behavioural problems, juvenile delinquency) won't apply.

Yes, but I just copy pasted the traits for psychopathy....couldn't bother editing them.

[Bohandas]

Play it as a combination of Bender from Futurama and Master Shake from Aqua Teen Hunger Force

[hamishspence]

While psychopathy's one way to be Evil - another might be "the character no longer has limits in their methods." Basically, they're prepared to do things that they wouldn't do before.

Their emotions might also be more extreme - when someone counters them, they're no longer just annoyed - they have hatred where they didn't have before.

[Vingelot]

Nothing in the OP given says they won't remember who their friends and allies are.

Chaotic evil

[Tanarii]

Chaotic evil
Yes, and? We already know what that means, exactly, in 5e. It will affect how they act towards their friends and allies sometimes, within their Persoanlity Trait, Ideal, Bond, Flaw, and new typical Alignment behavior. But it won't mean they forget them.

That doesn't mean they won't possibly betray or attack them in an act of arbritrary violence, spurred on by greed, hatred, or bloodlust, of course. Or they may not.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Play it as a combination of Bender from Futurama and Master Shake from Aqua Teen Hunger Force

That's actually really good advice.

[Laserlight]

Chaotic: you don't consider yourself bound by society's expectations of you, or by contracts that are now disadvantageous to you. "It's not illegal if you don't get caught." That doesn't mean you cannot obey the law, just that you do so when it's convenient for you to. If there are a lot of guards standing around the tollbooth, you might decide to go ahead and pay the toll to avoid a fight. Or you might give a speech about how taxation is theft. Or you might circumvent the tollbooth.

Evil: Your cost/benefit evaluation of an action only includes costs to you, not to anyone else. If you have marshmallows, you start a fire so you can toast them; if the fire goes on to burn down a forest and two villages, well, that's not your problem, so who cares?

What Chaotic Evil does not mean is that you stupidly go on a killing spree just because you were bored in the midst of a city that has alert and heavily armed guards with magical support.

[imanidiot]

got an artifact recently and the detrimental properties determine my alignment everyday.... chaotic evil might be the most challenging.

so how would u play it?

I play Chaotic Evil by acting as I would with any other character while observing two assumptions. One, that I generally consider freedom to be more important than safety. And two, that I consider MY safety to be more important than YOUR freedom.

[Temperjoke]

Self-motivated and uncaring to the legal status of your interests, as well as a lack of concern regarding society's common standards. At the same time, don't forget that a chaotic evil person may decide that something they want isn't worth the hassle of dealing with angry party members. Also, the golden rule of evil: what they don't know, they can't get angry at me for.

[Sigreid]

Pretty simple decision tree:

Did something you would like to do for fun or profit pop into your head, no matter how cruel?
Can you get away with it without paying too high a price, including losing your allies?
If yes to both, do it.

[History_buff]

Hire HBO's Troy. Watch it.

Emulate Titus Pullo..

Show is called Rome (RIP gone too soon), but this is good advice.

[Finlam]

Typically, but not consistently, act with arbitrary violence, spurred on by your greed, hatred, or bloodlust.

This is correct. Even a Chaotic Evil character still has goals, things, and people they value. It's just that what they value and how much they value changes pretty often.

As other posters have said, don't play in such a way as to spoil the fun at the table. Your Chaotic Evil character can and should still value his fellow party members as friends, or at least as allies he'd rather not cross. Nearly everything else is fairgame.

Here's some Chatotic (leaning towards Evil) tendencies you can pick up and roleplay pretty easily:


"We need this guy alive" but, he just stabbed you and you caved his head in a fit of rage.
You're not very good with money. It's just that money and rare items have a tendency to evaporate around you (and the people you know) and the whores, drug dealers, back alley fighters, and every would-be-revolutionary with whom you sympathized while inebriated finds themselves a good deal better off.
You may be on a quest to save the world, but when your party hits the town you are Carousing before the guards can say "Papers please."
You don't forget or forgive a slight, real or imagined. You know that shop owner raised the price on you because you're a Dwarf; he's got it coming, and who better to give it to him than you?
You won't forgive people for looking down on you or your friends. If anyone's gonna insult them, it's gonna be you. Everyone else needs to learn the pecking order.


Chaotic Evil is not harder to role play than any other alignment. Just target most of your Chaotic and Evil tendencies at NPCs and try to be mature about it so you don't end up derailing the plot. A "good" Chaotic Evil character is liked by the party and knows they've got his back. And while he's got their back, he'll also bring into his madness once in a while.

[danpit2991]

Hire HBO's Troy. Watch it.

Emulate Titus Pullo..

pullo is not chaotic evil, smh i would say he is true neutral .... unless your his enemy then he is just plain ruthless and vicious

Mark Antony on the other hand yea CE all the way only cesaers might kept his ass in check

[Malifice]

Here this might help

glib and superficial charm
grandiose (exaggeratedly high) estimation of self
need for stimulation
pathological lying
cunning and manipulativeness
lack of remorse or guilt
shallow affect (superficial emotional responsiveness)
callousness and lack of empathy
parasitic lifestyle
poor behavioral controls
sexual promiscuity
early behavior problems
lack of realistic long-term goals
impulsivity
irresponsibility
failure to accept responsibility for own actions
many short-term marital relationships
juvenile delinquency
revocation of conditional release
criminal versatility

So... you're saying I'm CE?

[Kane0]

So... you're saying I'm CE?

Only on your character sheet. What you believe and/or say you are is totally up to you :smallamused:

[Bohandas]

Play it as a combination of Bender from Futurama and Master Shake from Aqua Teen Hunger ForceThat's actually really good advice.

Thank you.

Also, if you want to go for a darker vibe add in a bit of GWAR and a bit of Heath Ledger's Joker.

EDIT:
Also Herbert West from the movie version of Re-Animator

EDIT:
Going back to more comedic characters that could be emulated, also look into Danny Vermin from Johnny Dangerously and Jodene Sparks from Sealab 2021

[Malifice]

Only on your character sheet. What you believe and/or say you are is totally up to you :smallamused:

Ive always though of myself as CN.

I pinged as CE on the Wizards alignment test though, and my friends to refer to me as 'evil'. Particularly my ex-girlfriends.

Maybe there was something in that.