Evil in a Good Campaign: Shifting Alignment

[blackjack50]

I have an idea for a character. And 5e seems to be very open about alignment. I want to start out as evil in a good campaign and slowly shift my character to good. The reason? I want to have my group distrust me. I want to be a red herring basically. It is a common trope in movies and stories. The guy you suspect is evil turns out to have a golden motivation.

So I was wondering about ideas on how to run this character. I was thinking a pirate type character modeled after Black Beard. Or a former prisoner? I am thinking of being evil and then letting the party argue and convince me in to doing good deeds. Maybe even having philosophic debates where I “try” to turn them to my alignment.

What do you guys think? Any good backstory or role play ideas that will help me be evil and then show me shifting without saying “oh I’m good now.”

[Makiru]

This type of character is a tough one to play, as it requires everyone, GM and party, to be willing to buy in on the concept. Anyone who plays or acts like a Lawful Stupid paladin type can bring the entire thing crashing down. I do have some experience in this area, though, so I can at least recount what I went through and hope it helps any.

First of all, not 5e; getting that out of the way. I made a character that was literally a damned soul that ran out of the underworld (it's just a cave in the desert, after all) and just wanted to possess vehicles and go fast, no matter what anyone else thought. Some early hijinks included using a fire engine to blow up a building, dropping a bunch of grenades in a fireworks store as a distraction, and possessing a caravel and ramming it into a man in a wheelchair in the middle of town, then stealing the wheelchair and riding into the sunset.

Now, this sounds like the epitome of Chaotic Evil, and normally you'd be right. At first, the party only really kept him around to be unleashed as a weapon, keeping him leashed up the rest of the time (he was about the size of a toy poodle). But, as time went on, and his relevance to the overarching plot was revealed, as well as past relationships with some of the party's extended family (he didn't remember any of his pre-death existence), he softened up, even willing to sacrifice himself and his second chance at life for the people that stuck by him when nobody else did. He never lost his snarky, devil may care attitude, either. Over the course of a year+ long IRL campaign, he made it to Chaotic Neutral, maybe even the low end of Chaotic Good.

That's what I mean when I say this kind of character requires everyone to buy in. You need a GM willing to work with you and give you a reason to change your ways, and a party that won't just put you in the ground at the first opportunity and instead enable your character growth over time.

That last part is the thing I think is the most important thing on your side: it needs to be a gradual change, or nobody will believe it. Everyone might just think the attitude was a front or an act of you change too soon or abruptly.

Anyway, that's just my ramblings. If you got something of value out of that, then you're welcome.

[False God]

As above, but in brief: it depends heavily on if the party is interested in buying into it.

They may simply be content to let you run around being evil when it's useful to them and tying you up when it's not.

[Tanarii]

1) write down the evil alignment behavior
2) write down other personality traits
3) use those as motivations when you make decisions, as appropriate
4) when time passes or in game events demand it, erase old alignment behavior, write down new neutral one
5) use new behavior + personality traits as motivations
6) repeat 4 & 5 but for good alignment behavior

Good luck with the party not ditching or killing you before you get to step 4 :smallamused:

[Nagog]

I'd recommend going with a Neutral Evil character to start, then lean into more neutral as your compatriots grow on you a bit more, then once you're solidly neutral, lean into neutral good.

Start with having the same goal as the party, but your methods of getting there are often gruesome or cruel or illegal, but they still get the job done, although often at the expense of others.
You can easily pitch to the party why such methods are effective and easy, perhaps moreso than their options. Don't play Murderhobo, but make it clear that other people's troubles are not your own, and you couldn't care less about them. The party you may care for and even protect after a short time, as they could be useful in the future. As you make a habit of protecting them, and perhaps after they've come to your aid a time or two, you consider them to be a friend and may go out of your way to help them, even if it holds no value for you. From there, some of their Good ways may have rubbed off on you, so your plans and schemes tend to harm others less than they did before, perhaps sparing unimportant people intentionally now. From there you can build the character's compassion until eventually they start acting for the betterment of others without prodding, instead of just because they're useful or the act benefits them.

[blackjack50]

1) write down the evil alignment behavior
2) write down other personality traits
3) use those as motivations when you make decisions, as appropriate
4) when time passes or in game events demand it, erase old alignment behavior, write down new neutral one
5) use new behavior + personality traits as motivations
6) repeat 4 & 5 but for good alignment behavior

Good luck with the party not ditching or killing you before you get to step 4 :smallamused:

I do anticipate failure. But at least it will be a change of pace. I tend to not be upset if i die over my own actions