The Best Adventure Path for Evil Characters?


Pathfinder Adventure Path General Discussion


Hello!

I've glanced at a few adventure paths and noticed that most are tailored for heroic characters who typically wish to save the day. Most of my group seems focused on playing evil characters, is there one particular adventure path that may be better tailored to them? Thanks!


Justin Cheng 901 wrote:

Hello!

I've glanced at a few adventure paths and noticed that most are tailored for heroic characters who typically wish to save the day. Most of my group seems focused on playing evil characters, is there one particular adventure path that may be better tailored to them? Thanks!

serpent's skull works pretty good.

my group was mostly half and half (5 player's 2 started evil, 3 neutral, tho one of them switched to evil), kingmaker wouldn't be too hard for evil characters. skull and shackles will be starting in march that might have potential. carrion crown wouldn't be hard either (with potential for entertaining role playing), maybe the character's want what the whispering way is concocting for themselves:).


captain yesterday wrote:
Justin Cheng 901 wrote:

Hello!

I've glanced at a few adventure paths and noticed that most are tailored for heroic characters who typically wish to save the day. Most of my group seems focused on playing evil characters, is there one particular adventure path that may be better tailored to them? Thanks!

serpent's skull works pretty good.

my group was mostly half and half (5 player's 2 started evil, 3 neutral, tho one of them switched to evil), kingmaker wouldn't be too hard for evil characters. skull and shackles will be starting in march that might have potential. carrion crown wouldn't be hard either (with potential for entertaining role playing), maybe the character's want what the whispering way is concocting for themselves:).

.

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Also depends on the Chaotic vs Lawful axis.


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In an evil campaign most of the APs are going to be Evil vs. Other Evil. All you have to do is convince your Evil PCs to --ck those Other Evil guys. Which, if your Evil PCs are smart, is usually not that hard. After all, an AP usually involves saving the world in some way and it turns out the world is where your PCs keep their stuff.

Serpent's Skull is good though IMO it needs some help. Carrion Crown with evil PCs would be awesome. Curse of the Crimson Throne works fairly well with evil PCs so long as you can get the PCs invested in Korvosa as a city (and so long as you have at least one token neutral guy).

I do not recommend Second Darkness for evil PCs. Nor do I recommend Council of Thieves.


Seconded.

You can run any AP with evil characters, but yeah, it would be much easier with some than others. Serpents Skull and Carrion Crown would both work fine IMO. (Carrion Crown's first module would be a bit tricky -- why would evil characters care what happens to the village? -- but after that it should pick up.) Kingmaker would also work just fine. In fact, I suspect that playing Kingmaker with a mostly lawful evil party would be a blast -- explore and civilize the wilderness so that you can crush it under your iron boot.

On the other hand, Rise of the Runelords, Second Darkness and Council of Thieves are all pretty heroic "save the day" type APs. You /could/ run through them with evil PCs (and people certainly have) but it would require some work on the part of the DM. If I were trying it, I'd say LE types for Second Darkness and CE types for Council (fight the power!). But I wouldn't really recommend either. In addition to being inherently heroic, both APs have failure points where evil parties might seriously jump the tracks. ("Screw it, let's just kill all the elves." "Wait -- why don't we let the pit fiend loose?" etc.)

Jade Regent isn't finished but from what we see so far, it probably wouldn't be easy with evil characters -- too much time locked up with the NPCs.

As ANM says above, Curse of the Crimson Throne is a bit of a special case -- it could be great IF you can get the PCs invested in Korvosa (or at least get them hating the Queen).

So there are at least three and probably four APs that you could play perfectly well with evil PCs.

Doug M.


MungBean wrote:

Hello!

I've glanced at a few adventure paths and noticed that most are tailored for heroic characters who typically wish to save the day. Most of my group seems focused on playing evil characters, is there one particular adventure path that may be better tailored to them? Thanks!

I'm currently running Council of Thieves for a party that is skewed away from good and it has been a challenge making it work, so I'd also recommend against that AP for an evil party.

I'm also running Kingmaker and I'd say you'd be able to make it work with evil PCs. You may need to adjust how some of the side quests are given and just present some of the events that unfold as opportunity for the party instead of something they would do out of the goodness of their hearts.

I ran Rise of the Runelords up to the start of the second book and that is also one that would be hard for evil characters. The characters are the heroes of Sandpoint and unless they hide their evilness, then it really won't work so well.

I'm playing Serpent's Skull in the first module and so far I would say that one would work with an evil party, but I can't say much past the first book.


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"Kingmaker" is an easy recommend. It makes almost no assumptions about your characters having any sort of moral agenda. That campaign is all about carving out your domain, be it a bastion of goodness in the wilderness or a tyranny arisen on the frontier.

If you can make "Curse of the Crimson Throne" about taking over Korvosa instead of simply saving it, that AP could work fabulously for evil characters.

And if you don't mind 3rd party APs, might I *shameless plug* recommend a look here at "Way of the Wicked"? There is also a free 32-page preview here.

Regardless of what you decide, I sincerely recommend giving an evil game a try. I certainly wouldn't want every campaign to be that way, but after decades of being the hero, it's nice to take a break and be the dark lord.

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games

Scarab Sages

Carrion Crown works good for some greedy, lawful leaning evil characters. Book 1 is all about waiting out the payday (and looting an abandoned prison), Book 2 is all about getting paid for some barrister work (and looting a count's villa), Book 3 is all about killing folks (and burning down their inn), Book 4 is about killing cultists (and looting their corpses), Book 5 is about vampire murders (and looting the corpses), and book 6 is about preventing the end of the world you're now high level enough to begin conquering.

Dark Archive

I'll throw my vote in for Serpent's Skull. My current party is all Neutral, but it would be just as easy to run this AP with an all evil party.
Now the AP itself needs a bit of work, but you wouldn't have too much trouble keeping evil characters motivated to follow the story.


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Thanks for the input everyone, I've decided to pick up Carrion Crown!

Sovereign Court

The way I am running the first book for Carrion Crown is that I am cutting the PC's off.

I am starting the AP with them outside Ravengro and being taken by carrage to the town. On their way they will get a harrow reading from a fellow passenger (The harrower from the 3rd book who I have added to have been 'friends' with the prof at one point).

During the harrow an orbs haunt will appear causing chaos with the carriage. After resolving the run away vehicle the carriage will try to leave and will end up coming back saying the orbs were still out there. The town of ravengro is cutoff increasing paranoia and forcing the PCs to resolve the issue unless they wish to spend the remainder of their lives there.

Liberty's Edge

Crimson Sword wrote:
Thanks for the input everyone, I've decided to pick up Carrion Crown!

This is a little late, but I bet Skull and Shackles (the next AP after Jade Regent) will be fantastic for an evil campaign. The PCs will be playing the role of pirates after all! Heck, at GenCon I was at a session where the devs were asking the attendees if they should openly suggest in the AP that Paladins not be played. People were suggesting a privateer angle but that was rejected since that they thought that wouldn't play well in The Shackles which are dominated by pirates.

Silver Crusade

I'm curious, what about Legacy of Fire? Would that work for evil PCs? Maybe even a Lamashtu-worshiping Gnoll?

Scarab Sages

Salt Upon Wounds wrote:
I'm curious, what about Legacy of Fire? Would that work for evil PCs? Maybe even a Lamashtu-worshiping Gnoll?

Since some of the bad guys are "Lamashtu-worshipping gnolls," that would definitely not work for LoF. I think it'd be ok for one or two characters to be evil, but not a whole party.

Silver Crusade

What about a non-evil, 'civilized' Gnoll? I'm just wondering because I'm kind of 'in' to Gnolls right now.


I run kingmaker to an expansionist LE group

SS is good for a wide alignment mix, wished I been CN or NE in that

I cant see how baddies could do C.C

Grand Lodge

I too don't see Evil working well with Carrion Crown. The catalyst to start the AP wouldnt jell with evil PC's and the way the trust mechanism works it may provide some temptation to raise Ravengro to the dust as would being couped up with the village for 30 days. While payday can be the theme of adventure 2, we've already seen on a post or two what happens when evil characters get carried away with being evil and get uncivilised - sort of screws the session. After session two? they know who they are facing and then it may well become a case of "why not join them"... session 3? Could go either way - session 4 probably allows for evil characters to cut loose the best...

A lot of motivation to go the extra mile and invest as characters in the modules disappears if the characters are evil.

I'd say serpent skull myself or Council of Thieves with the provisio the characters are invested in breaking up the status quo.

Grand Lodge

Crimson Sword wrote:
Thanks for the input everyone, I've decided to pick up Carrion Crown!

Great AP... but again, not sure its what you want for evil play.


After playing through it, I'm starting to wonder that myself. The riot was pretty neat scene but everything else seemed out of character. I had the Count trapped with his 'honour guards', just so the PCs won't think of crossing him for a castle.


If you want one specifically for Evil characters, you might check out Way of the Wicked, by Fire Mountain Games. The first part is out now, and the 2nd part is due out soon (though exactly how soon, I don't know.)


Geistlinger wrote:
If you want one specifically for Evil characters, you might check out Way of the Wicked, by Fire Mountain Games. The first part is out now, and the 2nd part is due out soon (though exactly how soon, I don't know.)

Thanks for the mention, Geistlinger! Book Two: Call Forth Darkness will be finished this month.

That adventure is basically Dungeon Keeper for Pathfinder.

You can check out the cover here.

Hope that helps,
Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games


By the by, I'm about to play an evil wizard in a Jade Regent campaign. My GM seems to think evil would work fine in that campaign -- well, at least the version he's going to run. I have already resolved to fully corrupt Ameiko by the time we're done with that campaign. Jade Regent: Rise of the Devil Empress. It will be glorious!

Oh, and part two of "Way of the Wicked" is now available for sale on paizo.com. Check it out here!

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games


ANebulousMistress wrote:


Nor do I recommend Council of Thieves.

Our play by post would disagree. We are not all evil aligned, but our group is pretty close to it. One evil-aligned Witch iirc, my Rovagug worshipping chaotic (CN), murder-spree'ing Cleric bent on destroying anything in the current order of westcrown, a lawful diabolist lawyer arcane-type used to making contracts between the infernals, a chaotic Inquisitor of Milani thats getting a tad bloodthirsty as well, and a fighter doorstop/meatshield caught in the middle of it all. We are playing it pretty close to the wire at times.

Evil characters could want too see Thrune influence destabilized or destroyed for the chaos of it all, to take control of themselves, etc. The initial hook needs some reworking or the underground could be a tad more evil themselves, or the characters can keep their goals secret from them and use everyone in their path.

Liberty's Edge

Salt Upon Wounds wrote:
What about a non-evil, 'civilized' Gnoll? I'm just wondering because I'm kind of 'in' to Gnolls right now.

I have a gnoll wizard in Legacy of Fire who was forced out of his tribe by the Carrion King and joined with the PCs for revenge

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