Playing An Evil Character
Ah! So you've shown an Interest in "The Dark Side"? Good for you! Bad for those who oppose you. Hopefully, you've not put down "Stupid Evil" or "Chaotic/Lawful Supid" on your character sheet. Those are quite a much different. There are certainly pitfalls, but also fun to be had playing an Evil character. This page is for resources both published and player created related to such.
Onsite Resources
Evil Excerpts
- Philosophies of Evil (12 different views on Evil in D&D, taken from the opening from Champions of Ruin.)
- Running An Evil Campaign (A brief section from Chapter 6 of Champions of Ruin, can apply to Evil quests and questlines as well)
- Evil Player Characters An Appendix (From the veeeery end of Book of Vile Darkness see below where I note BoVD was less for PCs compared to Champions of Ruin. The latter by comparison starts right off the bat with playing evil characters, then goes into items/feats/spells for PCs wanting to explore their "umral urges", then 'To Join or Oppose?" Evil organizations, and has an entire chapter on "practical advice on incorporating evil player characters".)
Original Articles of Darkness
Official Evil Organizations
For use in backgrounds or in adventures.
Dark Divinities
Looking for an Evil divine Patron? There are many.
Dont want to worship an Evil god? There are Neutral one's that take the dark with the light.
Offsite Resources
Published Books
D&D
- Book of Vile Darkness (Of course, DUH! But…this REALLY was intended as a DM book -in fact it outright says to hide it from your players right from the start, just like you would published adventures and says this is "A book DMs only". You may however still find use in it.)
- Champions of Ruin (Written more with Player Characters in mind than Book of Vile Darkness was.)
- Complete Champion (see the section on 'The Dark Churches')
- Defenders of The Faith (p. 36-39 talks about churches and organizations [in general] of the Evil alignments)
- Elder Evils (more a DM book, but it does have some nice feats in it, including Harvester of Souls)
- Exemplars of Evil (More of a DM book, BUT you will find great information on "styles" of villainy, as well as portraying villainous characters, and some feats and alternate class features. Everything that will interest you is within the first 35 pages.
- Fiendish Codex I (Everything you could want on The Infinite Abyss)
- Fiendish Codex II (Everything you could need from The Nine Hells)
- Heroes of Horror (Sets the mood. On p. 27-31 consider-what's your "type"? What's villainous motivation? Does your class figure into it? Has some vile feats in here, and…..oooh Unholy Scion.)
- Libris Mortis (Not everything undead in the game, but this may be of value to you. See the articles below.)
Non-D&D
- Liber Chaotica (The mega-collection of Liber Khorn, Liber Slaanesh, Liber Nurgle, and Liber Tzeentch all in one book plus the new Liber Undivided. No mechanics here, just a PURE lore book written IN-setting/character for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. It's not a D&D source book, but not only is it a good read, it'll give you insight into how even ordinary people might be drawn into the worship of the Warhammer Fantasy dark gods, "The Ruinous Powers". This information is in turn applicable in any setting if you interested in characters in similar situations. Khorne is regarded by some to be the weakest section, they were all seperate books originally- so feel free to read out of order-but if you dont you'll see from the tone and ALL the WILD writing in the margins by the in character author how he slowly goes mad from the revelations and very likely into the clutches of The Ruinous Powers himself. I would start with Slaanesh, easily the best section and book in the series. Altogether, 420 pages with Liber Undivided being 20, and the rest approximately 100 pages each. Bizarrely enough, if you wanted to make a comparison with Therafim's own "Forbidden Gods" you could look at their natures, domains, characterizations and in a WAY…. see them as Khorne (Frenzy), Slaanesh (Apohis), Nurgle (The Dark One), Tzeentch (The Nightmare King), and Chaos Undivided (Tharizdun) fairly accurately -at least in my opinion.)
- Conversing With The Damned (Just an except from the above, an interview with a cultist in the nobility, before his execution, taken from Liber Chatica, Liber Slaanesh or Book II)
- Riding The Avalanche ( If you read Liber Chaotica, note all the little clippings from books, scrolls, handwritten notes and other written goodies included in addition to the in-setting written book itself. Among them is a treatise by Dolmance called Riding The Avalanche Or "Embracing The Greater Gods", A Controversial article by Alphonse Domance reguarding the nature of Chaos, the Concept of "Evil" and and Man's culpability in the formation of the Chaos Gods. It gets more into the metaphysics of that universe, but take note of Dolmance's point of view. Even in the D&D cosmos, few mortals have any idea what the afterlife or their part, and that of the gods is in the grand scheme of things. Why do we exist? Why do the gods exist? Perhaps your character might have a similar view or theories.)
Articles
D&D Specific
- Mechanics
- Practical Demon Keeping: A Summoner's Guide To The Lower Planes (Demons, BUT ALSO Devils Yugoloths and everything in between! If it's Evil and its Extraplanar, here's the place to look.
- Collection of Necromantic Oddities (So….you have an interest in necromancy? Let's get grave digging and get started…..)
- Vile Feat Index (Not every evil feat known to man, but a complete listing of the Vile ones)
- Roleplaying
- Your Gritty Anti Hero & You (An official 4e article, but has applications in other editions. Not just for Evil ones either actually.)
Non-D&D
- The Evil Overlord List (Because if you haven't read it….you're not genre savvy enough to be one for very long.)
page revision: 38, last edited: 04 Mar 2012 08:36
