[3.5] Chaotic Evil Background

[Archpaladin Zousha]

I'm creating an Chaotic Evil character for an evil campaign. This is naturally a big switch for me, since as many of you know, I'm a paladin junkie. I have a basic idea of how I want him to be built, and some character elements, but I have no idea how to create a believable backstory for the guy. Here's what I have:

His name is Eirviner, which is Elven for "Sharp Storm of Winter."

He's an elf.

He starts as a level 1 fighter, then takes levels of Wizard until he qualifies for Eldritch Knight. He has to be level 10, no more, no less. One essential feat is Wild Talent

As the campaign proceeds and he gains more levels, I'll have him take levels of Cryokineticist (the Pyrokineticist, reskinned to use cold instead of fire) by virtue of the Wild Talent feat.

At some point in his live, he was horribly burned. As a result of this, he has burn scars all over his body and he has no hair. Here's sort of a picture of how I envision him:

Spoiler

Show

He has a crippling phobia of fire and heat because of his experiences. This is why I'm having him become a Cryokineticist.

I'm thinking about having him use a whip, since there's an ability in the Kineticist PRC that functions like a whip, and Weapon Focus feats and the like that apply to whips also apply to the ability.

Is there any way to construct a coherent background out of all this? What would he behave like, since he can't be anything but Chaotic Evil? I can only use the SRD to make him, so that limits things somewhat?

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Criticisms? Insults?

[Tempest Fennac]

Could a friend who he trusted have been responsible for the burns with the idea being that he came sadistic due to them breaking his trust? I guess he could have also been a sadist who was interrested in torturing animals with some limited knowledge of fire magic which ended up getting out of control as well.

[Mr.Bookworm]

Suggestions:

1) Duskblade would work nicely. Eldritch Knight isn't that good, and Duskblade would work well with whips (alliteration for fun and profit), what with arcane channeling and all, and is basically a tailor-made gish.

2) There is an actual Cryokineticist class, if you're interested in checking it out. It's in Frostburn.

3) Have you been reading A Song of Ice and Fire?

[WingedHorse]

CE can always be "I just don't care about rules, traditions or who gets hurt" but going a bit further into the nature of the alignment...

Well, the somewhat obvious route to go with is his trauma and how it has affected his life. As anyone seeing him would fear him, pity him and perhaps even be disgusted by him, he would have learned that life isn't fair and chance can change anyone's life completely, for better or worse. As such, he would feel little pity for those his actions hurt.

While he might not be able to do anything to those who fear or are disgusted by him, he can do something about being pitied. Namely, getting more power and demonstrating it at any time he has the chance.

As such, he might do nothing to hide his burn marks but rather want people to see them and react to them so he gets an excuse to show what he can do. He of course can't go around killing everyone who looks at his scars in a wierd way. He can however, make them feel a lot of pain when he gets small excuses. Over time, this might change to enjoying seeing people feel pain.

Whip really fits there well.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Suggestions:

1) Duskblade would work nicely. Eldritch Knight isn't that good, and Duskblade would work well with whips (alliteration for fun and profit), what with arcane channeling and all, and is basically a tailor-made gish.

2) There is an actual Cryokineticist class, if you're interested in checking it out. It's in Frostburn.

3) Have you been reading A Song of Ice and Fire?

As I said, I can only use the SRD, which does not have the Duskblade.

Frostburn isn't allowed either, but I am allowed to use the Pyrokineticist variants seen here:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040625e

No, I've never read A Song of Ice and Fire.

[Ovaltine Patrol]

Perhaps he was a circus lion-tamer who suffered a terrible accident while attempting to direct a lion through a flaming hoop. His love of cold comes from its soothing qualities and his intense desire to kill all lions by turning their habitats into arctic wastelands.

[Morty]

Despite what you might have heard, Chaotic Evil alignment is just as wide as any other. So before anyone gives any advice, we need to know more about this characters' personality. The easiest way to have a CE character is to simply play someone who doesn't give a **** about who gets hurt as long as he gets what he wants.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Perhaps he was a circus lion-tamer who suffered a terrible accident while attempting to direct a lion through a flaming hoop. His love of cold comes from its soothing qualities and his intense desire to kill all lions by turning their habitats into arctic wastelands.

No offense...but that just sounds kind of silly.

As to your question M0rt, I'm afraid I'm really not sure what kind of personality I want for this guy. So far, all I have that I really like is this exchange from the video game Sacrifice (the god Charnel seems to be a stellar example of Chaotic Evil to me):

Eldred: Charnel, death is not the answer to everything.

Charnel: Indeed. Torture has its merits.

Eldred: Exactly.

Another quote that I think'd work well comes from Kreia in KOTOR II:

"But I do not want your pity or your mercy. I want you to break."

Kind of sad that I'm cobbling together a personality out nihlistic and cruel video game characters.

[Ovaltine Patrol]

Many a super villain has had a silly background story, but I could try thinking of a more serious one.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Many a super villain has had a silly background story, but I could try thinking of a more serious one.

Good point.

"So you fell in a tank of acid, got your skin bleached and decided to become a supervillain. What, you couldn't get a job as a rodeo clown?" - Terry McGinnis, while fighting The Joker.

I suppose I shouldn't be so quick to judge.

[Ovaltine Patrol]

If you have access to Elder Evils you might want to look at Father Llymic, might give you some backstory ideas for a CE cold-based character.

[Starbuck_II]

I'm creating an Chaotic Evil character for an evil campaign. This is naturally a big switch for me, since as many of you know, I'm a paladin junkie. I have a basic idea of how I want him to be built, and some character elements, but I have no idea how to create a believable backstory for the guy. Here's what I have:

His name is Eirviner, which is Elven for "Sharp Storm of Winter."

He's an elf.

He starts as a level 1 fighter, then takes levels of Wizard until he qualifies for Eldritch Knight. He has to be level 10, no more, no less. One essential feat is Wild Talent

As the campaign proceeds and he gains more levels, I'll have him take levels of Cryokineticist (the Pyrokineticist, reskinned to use cold instead of fire) by virtue of the Wild Talent feat.

At some point in his live, he was horribly burned. As a result of this, he has burn scars all over his body and he has no hair. Here's sort of a picture of how I envision him:

Spoiler

Show

He has a crippling phobia of fire and heat because of his experiences. This is why I'm having him become a Cryokineticist.

I'm thinking about having him use a whip, since there's an ability in the Kineticist PRC that functions like a whip, and Weapon Focus feats and the like that apply to whips also apply to the ability.

Is there any way to construct a coherent background out of all this? What would he behave like, since he can't be anything but Chaotic Evil? I can only use the SRD to make him, so that limits things somewhat?

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Criticisms? Insults?

Why not be a Psi Warrior who multiclasses into becomes a Slayer (from SRD not the XPH one) and from there Cryokineticist? That would be all SRD.

The Difference between Slayer and Illithid Slayer is no requirement to kill illithids.

Something like Psi-warrior 6/Slayer 2/Cryokineticist 2
You'd manifest up to powers 3rd level and have base power points of 15. Bab +7.

Just an idea if you want to start out with the Prc.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

I do not have Elder Evils at the moment, but I could probably get my paws on it. It's one of the few 3.5 books that's still in print, right?

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Why not be a Psi Warrior who multiclasses into becomes a Slayer (from SRD not the XPH one) and from there Cryokineticist? That would be all SRD.

The Difference between Slayer and Illithid Slayer is no requirement to kill illithids.

Something like Psi-warrior 6/Slayer 2/Cryokineticist 2
You'd manifest up to powers 3rd level and have base power points of 15. Bab +7.

Just an idea if you want to start out with the Prc.

Uh...mainly because I don't wanna monkey with psionics too much, as I've never been very familiar with them. The whole Cryokineticist thing was actually reccomended by my DM.

[Ovaltine Patrol]

I do not have Elder Evils at the moment, but I could probably get my paws on it. It's one of the few 3.5 books that's still in print, right?

It's one of the more recent 3.5 books, yes. I've seen it in regular bookstores, so if you have access to a proper gaming store, it's nearly a sure thing, to say nothing of getting it online. I'm personally using Father Llymic as the next-to-last antagonist in an ongoing campaign (fortunately, none of the players are on these forums ).

[Archpaladin Zousha]

My DM has allowed me to use the Duskblade, and I'm just going to use that instead of all the multiclassing and prestige classes. Keeps things simpler that way.

Also, how exactly do I generate stats using 36 point buy? What'd be the ideal stat allocation for a duskblade?

[Mr.Bookworm]

As I said, I can only use the SRD, which does not have the Duskblade.

Frostburn isn't allowed either, but I am allowed to use the Pyrokineticist variants seen here:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040625e

No, I've never read A Song of Ice and Fire.

Ah. I missed that part. Carry on with Eldritch Knight/re-skinned Pyrokineticist, then. (Wait, you can make a Sonokineticist? I'm totally going to do a Bard/Sonokineticist who damages people with the power of rock.)

I was asking about a Song of Ice and Fire because your character concept sounds a little similar to one of the characters in there.

Really, there are a couple of ways I can think of you could pull off the fire thing (background-wise). The first one is that he himself liked playing around with fire as a kid (probably cruelly, given that he's CE), and he accidentally set the fire which burned him. The second is that someone else did it to him, probably someone he trusted. There are almost certainly more, but those are probably the main ones.

EDIT: This is what comes out of starting a post and then having to leave it for a couple of hours.

Yeah, Duskblade will work great for you. It lets you get into Cryokineticist much earlier to.

[The_Blue_Sorceress]

Background idea:

Something was always just a little bit off about Eirviner. Even as a small child he had an unnatural fascination with pain and death. Not his own pain, of course, but the pain of others. The other elven children avoided him because of his cruelty. He never harmed them, for fear of being punished, but when they angered him their pets would vanish. They might turn up later mutilated, as if attacked by an larger animal.

He liked fire too, and in the end it wasn't his petty cruelty or the torture and mutilation of small animals that caught up to him, it was his love of flames. One of his fire got out of control and left him badly burned. From that day forth his love became fear, and his anger and cruelty increased. He became less cautious as time passed, more certain that he wouldn't be caught, and that was his downfall in another way.

He was found out, and all the little fires and mutilations were finally attributed to him. He was cast out of his village and has spent the time since wandering. Adventuring was a natural enough thing for him to do. He could move from place to place, and getting paid to kill, something he enjoyed anyway, was just icing on the cake. He has left a trail of murders in his wake, people killed because they were in his way, or simply because he wanted to kill them.

Try that on for size.
Blue

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Never mind, I found a calculator. Do these stats look good for a duskblade?

STR 16 16
DEX 10 12
CON 12 10
INT 18 18
WIS 10 10
CHA 10 10

Or maybe this?

STR 14 14
DEX 10 12
CON 14 12
INT 18 18
WIS 12 12
CHA 10 10

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Ah. I missed that part. Carry on with Eldritch Knight/re-skinned Pyrokineticist, then. (Wait, you can make a Sonokineticist? I'm totally going to do a Bard/Sonokineticist who damages people with the power of rock.)

Actually, my DM's just approved me using a Duskblade. Thanks for the suggestion!

[Yukitsu]

My advice for you is to not make your CE characters motivated only by their own ambitions or impulses, nor to make them mere sadists. I find that CE is a great alignment for finding complex and potentially very interesting backstory justifications for acting in a manner that typical adventurers don't, but at the same time, I play each and every one of them as functional members of the party. In both cases, my most chaotic evil of actions were committed behind the backs of the party, so they wouldn't suspect my alignment.

Your character, I'd go with a background like this: (insert generic meaningless name here X) was a young boy of village (insert village name here.), living a joyous childhood. He often travelled to the human town of (insert town name here) just beyond the forest that the elves resided in. However, one day while playing with a friend, X heard a bell ringing along the town walls. His friends mother pulled both the young elf child and their own into their sturdy home, and hid them. As they entered the home, the father was seen leaving, strapping on a sturdy helmet, and carrying a bow gifted to him from the elves. When X asked what was going on, the parents asked him to be quiet. After some time, the heard the clash of battle on the walls, and soon outside the door of the simple wooden house. After a few moments of relative silence, bottles burst through the windows, spilling a foul black liquid onto the ground. The torch that soon followed lit the house into a terrifying conflagoration.

The mother, desperate to save her own son tried to drag him out of the choking smoke and out the back door, but they were met by the cruel spears of the attackers. Through the haze of smoke and flame, the hidden elf child saw a man looking through the gloom. Satisfied, he turned and left, the others following behind. The young elf child, still too shocked to act was then struck by burning thatch fallen from the cieling. It burned his face and hair, and in a panic, he beat the flames out with a blanket. The pain having returned some of his senses, the elf child fled through the smoke, dragging the blanket behind him. He didn't escape unseen however, and as he fled into the forest he heard the clank of armoured warriors in pursuit. By then, night had fallen, and the winter snow had begun to fall.

After running for some time, the child too exhausted to continue collapsed in a clearing. He wrapped the blanket around himself, as the cold snow began to fall. He was soon asleep, too tired, and in too much pain to continue.

When he awoke, a thick pile of snow had covered him. Pushing upwards, and looking around himself, he saw deep footprints in the snow all around him. The snowfall had saved him. Thirsty and hungry, he stumbled through the forest, trying to get back to his home. As he wandered through the woods, he came upon a small frozen waterfall. The falling sheets of ice seemed beautiful to the child, who inspected them more closely, only to see his disfigured and maimed face. In shame, he turned from the path that would return him home, and lived for many years to come in the burned out wreck of his childhood friends village.

Of course, this is very rough, and is obviously missing some very important facts. IIRC, duskblade magic is innate, like sorcery, so he was evidently born with several innate powers. Perhaps given his situation, he'd learn to be more tough, to wrestle down the wild winter wolves, and to use a weapon against them more than he had a chance to fully realize his art.

I don't expect that you'll use this, but I just wanted to show you that CE people can have very diverse, rich backrounds. Most people just play them as homicidal, self serving maniacs, when there is potential for a lot more.

[Yukitsu]

Never mind, I found a calculator. Do these stats look good for a duskblade?

STR 16 16
DEX 10 12
CON 12 10
INT 18 18
WIS 10 10
CHA 10 10

Or maybe this?

STR 14 14
DEX 10 12
CON 14 12
INT 18 18
WIS 12 12
CHA 10 10

A pyrokinetesist uses dexterity, as the lash is a ranged touch attack that also counts as a whip. A duskblade that is using his ability to channel is one of the few caster types that doesn't need full intelligence, as very few abilities rely on save based effects. I'd go with strength 14, dexterity 16 (after race) con 12, intelligence 14, wisdom 14, charisma 10. Use your move to make the whip, then standard to both hit and deliver a spell via it. Going 5 and 5 on classes gets you some neat once per day abilities that aren't too effective, but can certainly come in useful.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

I'm not going with the pyrokineticist anymore though.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

My advice for you is to not make your CE characters motivated only by their own ambitions or impulses, nor to make them mere sadists. I find that CE is a great alignment for finding complex and potentially very interesting backstory justifications for acting in a manner that typical adventurers don't, but at the same time, I play each and every one of them as functional members of the party. In both cases, my most chaotic evil of actions were committed behind the backs of the party, so they wouldn't suspect my alignment.

Your character, I'd go with a background like this: (insert generic meaningless name here X) was a young boy of village (insert village name here.), living a joyous childhood. He often travelled to the human town of (insert town name here) just beyond the forest that the elves resided in. However, one day while playing with a friend, X heard a bell ringing along the town walls. His friends mother pulled both the young elf child and their own into their sturdy home, and hid them. As they entered the home, the father was seen leaving, strapping on a sturdy helmet, and carrying a bow gifted to him from the elves. When X asked what was going on, the parents asked him to be quiet. After some time, the heard the clash of battle on the walls, and soon outside the door of the simple wooden house. After a few moments of relative silence, bottles burst through the windows, spilling a foul black liquid onto the ground. The torch that soon followed lit the house into a terrifying conflagoration.

The mother, desperate to save her own son tried to drag him out of the choking smoke and out the back door, but they were met by the cruel spears of the attackers. Through the haze of smoke and flame, the hidden elf child saw a man looking through the gloom. Satisfied, he turned and left, the others following behind. The young elf child, still too shocked to act was then struck by burning thatch fallen from the cieling. It burned his face and hair, and in a panic, he beat the flames out with a blanket. The pain having returned some of his senses, the elf child fled through the smoke, dragging the blanket behind him. He didn't escape unseen however, and as he fled into the forest he heard the clank of armoured warriors in pursuit. By then, night had fallen, and the winter snow had begun to fall.

After running for some time, the child too exhausted to continue collapsed in a clearing. He wrapped the blanket around himself, as the cold snow began to fall. He was soon asleep, too tired, and in too much pain to continue.

When he awoke, a thick pile of snow had covered him. Pushing upwards, and looking around himself, he saw deep footprints in the snow all around him. The snowfall had saved him. Thirsty and hungry, he stumbled through the forest, trying to get back to his home. As he wandered through the woods, he came upon a small frozen waterfall. The falling sheets of ice seemed beautiful to the child, who inspected them more closely, only to see his disfigured and maimed face. In shame, he turned from the path that would return him home, and lived for many years to come in the burned out wreck of his childhood friends village.

Of course, this is very rough, and is obviously missing some very important facts. IIRC, duskblade magic is innate, like sorcery, so he was evidently born with several innate powers. Perhaps given his situation, he'd learn to be more tough, to wrestle down the wild winter wolves, and to use a weapon against them more than he had a chance to fully realize his art.

I don't expect that you'll use this, but I just wanted to show you that CE people can have very diverse, rich backrounds. Most people just play them as homicidal, self serving maniacs, when there is potential for a lot more.

Oh, I like this! A lot!

[Yukitsu]

I'm not going with the pyrokineticist anymore though.

Ah, thought you were going pyrokineticist after 5 levels of duskblade. In that case, I prefer the first set of stats, but as you don't rely on save DCs to cause damage, swap your int and strength scores. Duskblades gain less from a high casting stat than most casters, unless you find a way to get other arcane spells known. You're better off saving up for a ring of wizardry to just get more slots.

[Xuincherguixe]

On some level, deep in the characters subconscious, he has decided that he doesn't deserve to live, and so they act in self destructive ways. Such as, becoming an adventurer.

Most of the time, he would react intelligently. But every so often... he would make questionable decisions.

Not that that's a whole character concept mind you. But it could compliment choatic evil traits.

[Keld Denar]

STR 14
DEX 10
CON 14
INT 18
WIS 12
CHA 10

This, although I'd actually siphon off some points from Cha and Wis to bump your Str and Con a little more. Something like this:

STR 16
DEX 10
CON 14
INT 18
WIS 10
CHA 8
or
STR 16
DEX 10
CON 15
INT 18
WIS 8
CHA 8

I'm assuming Human as race. There are lots of great guides for Duskblades, including the one over on the CharOp forums. Feats would probably be:
1st Power Attack, Something
3rd Knowledge Devotion
6th Arcane Strike
9th Something

For your open feats, you could literally take Skill Focus: Craft(Underwater Basket Weaving) without losing too much potency. If you use a Guisarme, Combat Expertese and Improved Trip would be a decent investment. Heck, even Weapon Focus + Improved Critical wouldn't be that bad, and they are generally considered weak feats. You could go with the tried and true Improved Bullrush + Shocktrooper as well. Sudden Empower could also be fun. I don't remember if it has any other funky prereqs, but once a day throwing out a Quickcast Empowered Ray of Enfeeblement would be pretty devistating if you were fighting a single big bruiser like a Giant or such.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

1. I am an elf.

2. My DM said Improved Toughness was a must, and the Combat Focus feats were awesome.

[magic9mushroom]

A suggestion: If you like playing Paladins, Paladin of Slaughter is Unearthed Arcana, which is SRD. That's a CE Paladin with most abilities inverted (ie Lay on Hands does damage, you get Cause Disease, you get an aura of -1 AC, etc.).

[Xuincherguixe]

1. I am an elf.

2. My DM said Improved Toughness was a must, and the Combat Focus feats were awesome.

Sounds like he might be trying to pull a fast one on you.