So I'm coming up with character concepts for future games (something I seem to do a lot) and the 1 that has been sticking out to me is a Rogue (Bandit/Charlatan). I've got his feats and mechanics worked out the real problem I'm having is deciding what his alignment would be based on his personality. As of now, he's a manipulative sociopath that sort of just uses people to benefit himself. I imagine he'd most likely be Chaotic on the Law/Chaos spectrum but I suppose he could also be Neutral. On the Good/Evil side though I'm not sure if he'd be Neutral or Evil. I can see him leaning more towards evil but seeing as how most of his actions would be based souly on whether or not the situation benefits him I'm not sure if that would push him into evil to begin with.
"Solely on whether or not the situation benefits him" IS evil. It may not be mustache-twirling melodrama, but it's certainly selfish and self-centered and non-altruistic and a bunch of other unpleasant things.
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"he's a manipulative sociopath that sort of just uses people to benefit himself."
This might be the alignment you are looking for for your character
A neutral evil character is purely out for himself.
Neutral Evil: A neutral evil villain does whatever she can get away with. She is out for herself, pure and simple. She sheds no tears for those she kills, whether for profit, sport, or convenience. She has no love of order and holds no illusions that following laws, traditions, or codes would make her any better or more noble. On the other hand, she doesn’t have the restless nature or love of conflict that a chaotic evil villain has.
Some neutral evil villains hold up evil as an ideal, committing evil for its own sake. Most often, such villains are devoted to evil deities or secret societies.
Neutral evil represents pure evil without honor and without variation.
P38 core rule book.
I hope this helps
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I'd lean towards chaotic evil, myself.
While neutral evil is a good descriptor of someone solely out for himself, it's 'twice as lawful' as CE is.
And a sociopath is not only solely out for himself, he's (rather often) quite adept at manipulating social mores, emotions, etc for personal gain.
Is he 'Me Orkish Motorcycle Hooligan! Me bash!' style CE? Probably not.
Is he 'I do whatever I want, except when someone is able to MAKE me do what they want?' Hells yes, and IMO that's the essence of CE.
Certainly not to say that all CE characters are sociopaths.. but I think all sociopaths are probably CE.. but rather good at appearing to be something other than, when they wish to be charming.
Yep, Neutral Evil. Too many people assume all forms of evil involve kitten kicking (LE follows a strict code to kick all kittens, NE because no one can tell him not to do it, and CE because DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!!!). Evil really just means self above others and has no moral qualms over actions.
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I still lean towards chaotic (since it seems pretty unanimous about evil..)
The reasoning being that sociopaths use (and more importanly MISuse) societies rules. Not just that, but it's largely What They Do. It's a characteristic to be an abomination against cultural norms.
Neutral evil would be, in my opinion, less likely than a sociopath to deliberatly bend expectations/rules/mores/emotions to their own selfish desires. That leaves CE :)
Owner - Johnny Scott Comics and Games
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I still lean towards chaotic (since it seems pretty unanimous about evil..)
The reasoning being that sociopaths use (and more importanly MISuse) societies rules. Not just that, but it's largely What They Do. It's a characteristic to be an abomination against cultural norms.
Neutral evil would be, in my opinion, less likely than a sociopath to deliberatly bend expectations/rules/mores/emotions to their own selfish desires. That leaves CE :)
True, but sociopaths also tend to follow their own code of rules (always leave a token, don't attack children, etc.). This means they do follow the concept of law when it suits them. This is why Neutral Evil is the perfect choice. Sociopaths tend to tread the line between law and chaos on a regular basis, due to their own twisted ideas and goals.
By definition sociopaths have a lack of remorse, shame, and guilt. They do things like normal people but can't care about the things they do. Now if that person intentially does something like stab someone in the back, murder, lie, steal, that might be considered neutral evil?
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Owner - Johnny Scott Comics and Games
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By definition sociopaths have a lack of remorse, shame, and guilt. They do things like normal people but can't care about the things they do. Now if that person intentially does something like stab someone in the back, murder, lie, steal, that might be considered neutral evil?
Yes, but the sociopath himself may not believe it to be so. He may consider himself neutral, or even good based on his perception of himself.
Sociopaths are far from chaotic. They are dangerous because they have such a powerful understanding of society and ways to game the system. While they are self destructive over the long term, they are rarely without a purpose or goal, sometimes years in the execution.
By definition sociopaths have a lack of remorse, shame, and guilt.
This is dead on, I do imagine that he will bend more towards evil but doing things for yourself doesn't necessarily merit you as evil IMO. Plenty of people that are out for themselves would be CN (Jack Sparrow comes to mind) but I do think this character would probably be evil because of the nature in which he does things for himself. As a sociopath I don't really see him having any sort of code at all, he would soley be doing things to benefit himself. On the other hand though, I don't see him deliberately breaking a law unless it suited his purpose so I think I'm going to start him out as Neutral Evil and just let him sway into Chaos if it comes to that.
As far as i can glean from research, lecture, articles, and TV (yeah, Dexter and Criminal Minds!) of the driving forces behind Anti-Social Personality Disorder (technical name for sociopath/psychopath) is the utter lack of empathy. As it's often associated with child-hood trauma, and they are often fro abusive or otherwise broken homes, a complete sociopath would have never learned to form human connections. THere is absolutely no real empathy or pity. A sociopath is a Complete Monster that can pretend that he isn't. So if he's really a sociopath, then anything human and decent he does has to benefit himself in some way, either maintaining his fascade, feeding his other neurosis (cause a sociopath is usually a narcissist at the vary least, often having other kinks as well) or something like that. At least for the most part.
Otherwise, he's really selfish, good at justifying things to himself, but not quite a sociopath.
As far as i can glean from research, lecture, articles, and TV (yeah, Dexter and Criminal Minds!) of the driving forces behind Anti-Social Personality Disorder (technical name for sociopath/psychopath) is the utter lack of empathy. As it's often associated with child-hood trauma, and they are often fro abusive or otherwise broken homes, a complete sociopath would have never learned to form human connections. THere is absolutely no real empathy or pity. A sociopath is a Complete Monster that can pretend that he isn't. So if he's really a sociopath, then anything human and decent he does has to benefit himself in some way, either maintaining his fascade, feeding his other neurosis (cause a sociopath is usually a narcissist at the vary least, often having other kinks as well) or something like that. At least for the most part.
No that's pretty much exactly what I'm going for. No remorse for his "bad actions" which in his own mind are probably goodb because they benefit him and he is the most important person there is.