Quote Originally Posted by Lord Athos View Post
Just dropping in to say that's a great read with some excellent pointers I will think about when creating my next evil character. Thanks!
Thank you for the compliment. Glad it was interesting and helpful!

I will note that you can absolutely be evil and violate a lot of what I wrote there. Segev is a necromancy-focused wizard, which means he's highly intelligent, so he has highly-analyzed philosophies and principles on which he acts. Evil can be incredibly petty. Evil can be self-destructve (and often is, in practice). But usually, you don't want to play those kinds of evil in a party, because it is short-lived and can be detrimental to the game. If you do, be careful to find reason why the party is exempt from your pettiness and cruelty. The "maintain alliances" justification is a good one. As is "they're my friends." An evil person can have friends, and even respect good people. He just doesn't get it when they refuse to take the stuff that's easy enough to get; who cares if those orphans will starve, it's not like they're your kids. And woe betide anybody who is not in his "in group" that hurts somebody he cares about, because the evil person will do mean things to them, and won't have that whole "conscience" thing to get in the way when he has them at his non-existent mercy.

The key, overall, to playing an evil character is to remember that very few are mustache-twirlers. "Being evil" is almost never their goal. (Unlike good people, who will generally agree that "being good" and "not being evil" are both positives for which to strive.) At most, they'll tend to acknowledge that they ARE evil, but they'll hold that it's more about strength, or pragmatism, or self-respect, or... any number of things that let them paint "good" as "foolish" or "weak." Evil people have motives and motivations, and while they CAN include sadistic cruelty, they usually don't...at least not beyond a certain petty need to assert power over others. They do tend to be more vengeful, because punishing those who hurt you feels good and is good for your rep. They can be petty. But they should - when played as PCs - always be good friends to their friends, families, and allies. Because party cohesion is important to playable games.