How to play an EVIL character WITHOUT ruining DND

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Now YOU have what it takes to play an EVIL character without ruining DND! I hope you enjoy :) For more dnd 5e content, check out the links above!

[aspen]

“How upset would I be if my character died next session” is absolutely the spookiest thing I think most players could be asked

[khangasOozaki]

probably one of the major hurdles to get over is, if your character is evil, what it keeping them with the party? what is preventing your character from throwing the party under the bus and making an escape in a dangerous situation?

[gabor]

I'm playing an evil character in a campaign and it's the most fun I've had RPing a character because I've had to look at and solve problems from a different angle. The DM seemed worried about me causing trouble in towns by acting evil but he really started to like my character because my character is agreeable most of the time. When I do act evil, it's calculated, decisive and benefits the party because I do evil to get power and influence. The DM originally planned for us to find a lost bear cub whose mother was being held by Kobolds. He wanted a nice touching mother-cub reunion but I tied the bear cub to a tree outside the kobold base 'to keep it safe', convinced the other PCs to knock out the momma bear cuz we didnt know if a wild animal would recognize us as 'friends'. While everyone was looting the camp I double tapped momma bear and took the cub back to our base and now we have a battle bear. The whole table was shocked but now we're stronger cuz we have the bear. They didn't like my methods, but appreciated the power boost. Everyone at the table is wondering what my next big power play is and it's great.

[Randomdudefromtheinternet]

In addition to what has been explained in the video …

I think most complains towards evil PCs are not because the character is evil, but because said actions come at the expense of the party and their goals (ruin an elaborated plan, kill/anger an important NPC after managing to get into their good graces or de-escalate a situation, steal the hard-earned magic items from the party during a long rest), if said evil actions were to benefit the party without a true repercussion, then they might question the means but couldn’t deny that said actions bring great results (it’s tricky, but can be done).

People don’t hate evil PCs, people just hate rude players.

[CharliMorganMusic]

I interpret good vs evil as serving the needs of others or serving the self. The self can be anything. For my character, it's my crew.

[amazinglysmart]

I like to think of “good” as more willing to help others, and “evil” as prioritizing yourself.

[emilbroseliger]

I am the dm in a campain where the players are a chaotic evil druid and necromanzer, neutral evil rouge, lawfull evil warlock and a chaotic neutral fighter.
Help me… xD

[tysondennis]

I have an idea on how to play an evil character: They will be using the party to their own ends, but either because they grow to care for the party or because betraying someone who’s proven time and time again to be useful to them is something that they’re smart/honourable enough to avoid doing, they will not betray the party once they have what they want, and will only try to kill the party once they start directly interfering with their plans.

[HereticalKitsune]

(Written before watching) I have played a semi-evil character before! He left a lot of broken hearts, murdered hobos, was boisterous and had a pact with an unalligned demon queen (Wasn't D&D, but I guess in D&D he would be a warlock as he had a couple of spells and some supernatural boons like insane dexterity, more than the elves, and could shapechange). At night he just went away to have some fun, and the murders only happened when he was away from the group. One time we had to get informations about a warehouse with suspected cultists, my PC split from the group who watched the house to get first hand informations. My PC went into an alley near-by and asked a hobo, gave him a BUNCH of money for the informations and then just stabbed him in the throat before dumping the body somewhere. No one found out about it but I got the informations in minutes while the others wasted hours and learning nothing. He eventually died in combat, I think... not wearing armor and only having a short sword was not the smartest idea I ever had.

(Written after watching) I don't really like the allignments, they are too strict while most people are more complex. For seperating the character from oneself voice acting might help, just a tiny bit to get into the headspace and for detachment. Not some super gruff voice, slight intonation or accent changes might be enough.

[Philesawesome]

I am playing a chaotic evil character in a dnd campaign, and I think this video has hit exactly what a good way to play an evil pc is. Another important thing that needs to be done is creating a good motivation to treat the other party members well.

My pc is highly manipulative and is kind and helpful to the party, because they are extremely powerful and further his goals. He convinced the lawful-good paladin in the party to help kill a crime-lord and then proceeded to take control of the syndicate.

[jharrell]

My evil characters tend to take a more Hanibal Lector kind of approach, coaxing others to do evil (like he did to his therapy patients), killing very minor NPC's that annoy them or that they think the world would be better without like he did with the bad player in the orchestra that he ate. He might also be a bit extra brutal to the party's enemies that they are killing anyway, they ran a few bandits through but he would cast spare the dying to stablize them then bash there skulls in again just for shits and giggles when nobody was looking. Subtle evil characters are my fave as it takes a bit of roleplay to finesse it, like how long will it take for the others to realize that he is evil and when they do what will they do since he has done nothing but help them and has never hurt them in any way.

[The-Black-Death]

I actually have a Chaotic Evil Star Wars character that I'm quite proud of, since not only can I sometimes play him in a villain role in some specific scenarios with other villain characters, but I can also play him as an "anti-hero" in half of the other scenarios, since he knows killing everyone and everything isn't beneficial for earning money. That and he has a hobby of collecting pets from across the galaxy of course lol, along with having a sense of loyalty when it comes to those he actually considers friends or comrades.

[lizard]

another tip is generally having your characters goals allighn with the parties. i played a lawful evil artificer or a oneshot who my gm loved so much he asked if he could bring back my character as a villain. this character although sadistic and cruel had an interesting honor system where if he made a deal he would stick to it. he would have intricate contracts for every single deal he made detailing his and the other parties boundaries. if his partner broke the contract he would outright kill them but if he was the one messed up he might get angry and break an arm but his contracted partner would live. he was sadistic and saw himself as a genius but functioned well as he had no reason to hurt the party and like the party wanted to fulfill the job they were hired for.

[honestreviews]

Great first video. Love this advice. Simple but really effective because of how we all can really get way too “in character” when trying to make for more “fun” gameplay and then justify bad actions that upset the table by saying well that’s what my character would do.

[rickhamilton]

One of my favorite "evil character" moments, murdered someone while using disguise self and actor feat to impersonate the BBEG let the family see me before running away, then recruit the family members help to go after the BBEG. the players all knew what happened but my character kept it secret so in game no one knew. prior to that my PC had only done petty thieving or killed during open combat sessions, so showing my high charisma rogue was actually a sociopath took everyone by surprise.

[absnt]

For me, the best experience playing an evil character was with my first warlock.
Our previous characters died during their last bossfight, implying that our next characters would start at lvl 6 (i feel like this was really important because it gave me the room to write a more complex background than just a simple lvl 1 guy).

I really wanted to try an evil character without ruining other player’s experience, so i worked with my DM and came to a really nice conclusion of playing this warlock with separated souls.
This was a blast for me, because in his backstory he was straight a serial killer who liked to see life being ripped away from his victims, but his patron got enough of it and decided to make him a goofball that kept joking about everything that happened to the party and would feel bad for even trying to defend himself with violence.

His evil side sometimes would come off because of lore stuff and was really fun playing an entirely different character when it happened.

[lavistro]

I RP as a Lawful evil Black Half Dragon Half Elf Necromancer. The other player in our group is a Silver Dragonborn Lawful Good Paladin. This has caused some interesting dynamics where I had to say out of session I need to fix my character's personality (I'm big on lore) since Silver and Black Dragons are mortal enemies and we were literally on the opposite ends of the spectrum. What I had to do was find a party member who was more neutral to allow me to do certain things as my character and when my character was being a dick to the paladin, I just apologized and said I wasn't expecting xyz. Later it was easier as he would go complain at a fireplace or go smoke a pipe when his idea that got turned down for being too evil was the more correct choice. In the mean time during combat he would always try to keep the paladin alive as a way to show he respected the Paladin despite their differences like a rival who understands despites does not like the paladin. He would even say the paladin is correct on some things and kept his code as be a team player triumphs over his end justifies the means. For me its a strong constant mental exercise but is more rewarding and we get some laughs. Especially when Speak with the dead is applied and the Paladin walks right in.

[Beesus-]

In the first campaign i was able to finish. I played as a necromancer, who while helping the party do their quest and defeat the god of death/necromancy. Was using my ability to raise the dead to create lieutenants out of the BBEG's lieutenants so i could dethrone him and take over the world as the new BBEG of the next campaign. The whole time i was sending dms to the DM(we did our campaigns on discord because all of us were in different states and one of us was in England) about what i was doing and he would tell me what i needed to roll/beat for it to work. We got to the end and my plan worked. Everyone was blindsided and i was able to make my character's dream a reality. It was honestly pretty cool. And way easier than people think it is.
Also in that second campaign i did not play as the necromancer again. Instead i played as a regular character with no ulterior motive or secret goal.

[hawkeshaven]

I... play almost exclusively evil characters. My main is a devout Lolth-sworn drow. If evil is defined by a character who prioritizes their own needs over others, how does that make the characters expecting their own needs to always be prioritized not evil? Also, if you as the player need to break character "every few minutes" to remind the table you're not evil in real life... are the other players all 8 years old? I would highly recommend finding a table of adults who understand the difference between pretend and reality. The key to playing an "evil" character harmoniously is to understand what motives them and how their goals align and differ from the rest of the party's. I'm playing a drow in party with a cleric of Lathander. Both are motivated by their faith. They find common ground on that. There's no need to break character. The other players understand what my character's motives are and he has a vested interest in their continued support, so he prioritizes cooperation. It's that simple.

[miguelcrafter]

I thought about it this way:
Give your evil character a reason to exist, a reason to be this way, and a goal they want to achieve