Ideas for an evil character?

[theonesin]

So, our campaign seems to be continuing on a downward spiral of the party acting more evil or apathetic to being allied with evil(like getting buddy buddy with two liches), and I'm likely to have a second character leave the group on the grounds of "You guys are terrible people. I can't be around you anymore".

I like playing with the group though, so I'm not gonna quit. I just think an evil character might actually fit in better now. Any ideas for interesting or fun evil character builds(we're level 9 for reference).

[BlackOnyx]

Perhaps a character with a merchant or noble background looking to make "business" connections with less-than-reputable folk behind the scenes? Playing the suave, cunning face of Evil Inc. can make for some fun rp.


As far as classes go, just about anything that grants you a decent number of points for social skills can work. Depends on how you want to play it. Casters are always fun, but playing a crafty mundane who gets by with his wit can make for an exciting challenge.

[Azoth]

Void School Pact Wizard5/Sleepless Detective1/Arcane Trickster3. Worship Shax, take Demonic Obedience and Accomplished Sneak Attacker. Max Profession(Undertaker), Profession(torturer), and Heal.

You can be anything from Hannibal Lecter to Jack the Ripper, and more.

Aim for getting Armor of the Shadow Lord, an Agile Dagger of Subtlety, and a Clawhand Shield for extra fun.

[zlefin]

how evil are you looking to get?
and what kinds of foes do you usually face?
let me try to recall a few of my evil char concepts that never saw play:

1) A slaver: a blasting wizard who uses merciful spell, not cuz he's merciful/nice, but because he wants living people to sell as slaves, and it's terribly wasteful to just kill off valuable resources.

2) A trophy hunter; probably using ranger. in it for the glory and prestige of a lot of nice kills.
My original version eschewed killing people; not out of any aversion to murder, but because they make lousy trophies: looking at a human skull it's hard to tell whether it was a worthy foe or a nobody commoner, whereas a dragon's skull would be clearly a great hunt.

[theonesin]

About the merchant idea, my current character was already something of a merchant backstory-wise. He was a crafting wizard who wanted to join up with adventurers to see first hand what they experience and what they need, so he could go onto make a magic shop better suited to such people. I've seen him as a generally good person though, if a little greedy at times.

The party isn't outright "murdering babies" evil. They've just had some very questionable decisions at times, and lean towards the shady. Of particular note is the party not once, but twice(the second being our last session) meeting a lich and just deciding "nah, they're cool and friendly. Let's be chill with this guy". No one seems to understand, or maybe don't care, that liches are fundamentally evil. I don't know if it's a "our liches are different" or "I want my liches to be able to be good because edgy" kind of thing, as the DM never established that there's a "Good" way to become a lich. Or that necromancy can somehow be "Good".

Except maybe our cleric of Calistria. She's very towing the line on evil or not.

[Andor13]

So you don't need Snidely Whiplash evil, you just need amoral.

Well, you can just make an amoral character. Someone who adventures for the money.

You can make functional evil. A sociopath who gets kind of itchy if he hasn't killed anyone in a couple of weeks, but you know what? Adventurers kill people and everyone likes them.

You can make incompetent evil. Like Duddly Dooright when he tried to go undercover as a villain, you keep trying to be evil, but your plans keep going horribly right and make the world a better place.

You can make exploratory evil, a Necromancer trying to discover why his discipline is inherently evil, and what that means, although that will require considerable buy-in from your GM.

You can make 'apathetic on the good/evil axis.' From another thread, this is the LN Incarnate. (Which doesn't work in Pathfinder, but I'm sure there is an equivalent.) This is someone who is intensely focused on ethics and alignment, just not in a way that evaluates good and evil. Either the strict law enforcement officer who doesn't care if the law is good or bad, or inversely the anarchist who doesn't care if the system does good things, they just need to bring it down.

[SangoProduction]

Well, depending on the where on the scale of evil, you could go with something without many morals, but not outright evil, like a Han Solo before he met...Anakin(?)...

Being dumped out in the uncaring universe, and having to backstab just to survive tends to breed a lack of morality, even if you don't neccesarily revel in the glory of the kill, and soak in the blood of the heathens.

Of course, you can just worship the Blood God, accepting no surrender, and slaughtering those who dare look at you the wrong way, or have the gall to harass you with kind complements, and claims of [sensual] interest!

[Elricaltovilla]

What books are allowed? What is the rest of the party like? What's the current plot line?

[RickAllison]

Are any of the party undead or are are harmed instead of healed by positive energy? Because a Legalistic Spirit Guide Oracle could be interesting. File contracts with the party according to what they need for the day (healing, burnination, etc.) and issue fines for noncompliance, like taking Flames spirit instead of Life when they needed a healer. I was actually thinking of this for a Good character, someone who keeps a running tab on "Effective Lives Saved" and charges the party by sending them out to do charitable work. "Let's see, you owe Stendarr effectively three lives since you last mitigated your debt. Fortunately, there is a family nearby who are infertile and in poverty. Stendarr requests you establish a higher quality of living for the family and arrange for a happy adoption, three lives saved."

Alternatively, you could try for a smash-y orc (or Aasimar/tiefling as an orc base) Oracle with Dual-cursed for song-bound and deaf. Your character is tone-deaf and always singing, the most evil combination I can think of.

[theonesin]

As far as books allowed outside of direct Paizo stuff, it's mostly Dreamscarred Press. I more or less begged the DM to allow that because I really wanted to try the Akashic Mysteries material(my previous two characters in this campaign were a Sobek Daevic and a Suqor Vizier).

The party is made up of a Human Fighter(2-handed damage dealer, Chaotic Neutral), Catfolk Samurai/Bushi(crit fisher dps, Chaotic Good), Lashunta Cleric(mostly mental/force enemy to do this spells, Chaotic Neutral), Human Fighter(tank, no alignment on sheet but probably something like CN), Tiefling Alchemist(mostly DP with bombs, probably CN again). In retrospect, the party probably isn't exactly evil, but just have no moral qualms with working with evil beings, and that just doesn't sit well with my Vizier.

[Elricaltovilla]

Well, if you'll allow me to toot my own horn for a moment, you could give the sanguinist medic a try.

The sanguinist archetype lends itself very well to a morally ambiguous healer. The concept for it came from a character idea I had of a dhampir that wanted to become a full vampire and researched techniques to draw mystic power from blood. You can find the Playtest documents in my signature.

[Calthropstu]

Meet Balithor the Mighty, stopper of evildoers.

He goes through the countryside looking for desperate people and performs boons for them. Invaluable services such as rescuing peasants from slavers, stopping bandits from attacking the town etc.

But there's a price to be paid. Any time he performs such a heroic feat, the person contracting him must consign their soul to hell. One soul per heroic deed is nonegotiable. If he doesn't get the soul, he walks away.

Obviously, only the truly desperate would hire him. He is effective, and sticks to his promises always making sure a rescuee returns home safely. He isn't cruel to anyone but his enemies and enjoys inflicting pain and horror on them.

[Particle_Man]

As far as books allowed outside of direct Paizo stuff, it's mostly Dreamscarred Press. I more or less begged the DM to allow that because I really wanted to try the Akashic Mysteries material(my previous two characters in this campaign were a Sobek Daevic and a Suqor Vizier).

The party is made up of a Human Fighter(2-handed damage dealer, Chaotic Neutral), Catfolk Samurai/Bushi(crit fisher dps, Chaotic Good), Lashunta Cleric(mostly mental/force enemy to do this spells, Chaotic Neutral), Human Fighter(tank, no alignment on sheet but probably something like CN), Tiefling Alchemist(mostly DP with bombs, probably CN again). In retrospect, the party probably isn't exactly evil, but just have no moral qualms with working with evil beings, and that just doesn't sit well with my Vizier.

Given the party composition, I suppose a straight up unchained rogue 5/assassin 2/master spy 2 might work, since your party seems to be short a scouting, infiltrating, disabling traps, and backstabbing character. You could be the face too if needed. I would advise against using Death Attack in combat situations, but you still have sneak attacks (and can use poisons) and DA can be saved for special cases.

Alternatively, if the party likes undead so much you could become some sort of necromancer, but you already have a cleric.