How to Make a Gnome Illusionist NPC Likeable (spoiler: he's evil)

[Kobold Catgirl]

So I'm planning on introducing a recurring villain into a game I'm running with several newbies. This villain will start out as a fairly likeable NPC who shows up, without stealing the xp (which seemed to annoy a couple of the players last time I used an NPC in a battle), makes some conversation (because the players have been struggling with roleplaying so far) and eventually heads off.
Later, he will do evil things like kick puppies and stuff, but for now, I don't want him to turn out like the last amicable character they dealt with. At the beginning, I was going to use a halfling NPC (a priest of Cayden) to patch them up in battles. He wasn't very popular, so I let him fade out. It helped that we got more players, so he was redundant anyways.

I don't want their reaction to the gnome's exposure as a bad guy being, "Oh, so we can finally kill that guy?"

How does one make a character genuinely likeable? Especially when it's a gnome? ;)

Not sure what advice I'm hoping to get here, but any ideas would be nice.

[Shadowborn]

Evil doesn't have to be mustache-twirling and wicked laughter. The guy can be likeable, he just does things ultimately for his own ends. Give him assets that he can share with the PCs. People like other people that do them favors. Perhaps he asks some favors from them in return in the future that further his own ends. They don't have to be obviously evil. Maybe he has them take out another evil guy that's a serious rival.

[feytharn]

Make his reasons for being evil relatable and known to the PC (by learning them over time)like

- abuse at the hands of the wizard that trained him
- really bad experience with the large races
- fear of the bleaching
- lured to the dark side by someone he loves
- a chain reaction caused by the PCs that resulted in a tragedy that drove him over the edge
etc.

[Kobold Catgirl]

Well, maybe I was unclear. I don't want him to be likeable after they discover he's evil. I want him to have a likeable facade.
But thanks for the help.

[Turin the Mad]

Used Puppy Salesgnome? ("only kicked once!")

You could take some inspiration if you dare from a certain fellow by the last name of Manson...

[Kthulhu]

High charisma.

[/thread]

[feytharn]

Kobold Cleaver wrote:

Well, maybe I was unclear. I don't want him to be likeable after they discover he's evil. I want him to have a likeable facade.

But thanks for the help.

That would depend on the PCs then.

- helping a PC to achieve a personal goal (helping out with a loan, using his charm and contacts to hook someone up with a love or business interest
- warning the PCs about dangerous foes (true, they are dangerous and incidentally a hindrance to the gnomes interests)
- providing the PCs low level magic items for cheap prices (the gnome needs to test his skills in crafting them)
- even an evil gnome can have likable traits - find out what alignemnt-independant traits your players characters find likable and make them part of your gnome.

[Rune]

Give him a family. Have him invite the heroes to stop and rest at his house, where his wife and their three kids will entertain the PCs. Homemade meal, one of the kids offer a simple toy to the PC that played with them. Showing the guy off as a family man will do wonders on making him a nice guy.

Then later, it maybe that the kingdom's knights start a fight in the village and the gnome's family has been killed. Then the gnome seeks retribution against the kingdom, slaughtering newborn babies as a "eye for an eye" kind of thing.

Or better yet, let them live. The gnome just keeps doing evil stuff, but at the end of the puppy-kicking baby-slaughtering work day he comes back to his family, and he's a really nice guy to them. The PCs would have to struggle between telling his wife and kids what a monster their father is, or they could debate whether to stake out the house or even kidnap the wife and kids to lure the villain. Is it all worth it? Can they still call themselves good after stooping so low?

[Deadmanwalking]

Have him be friendly, and (if conflicts arise) reasonable in resolving them. If your players have good senses of humor, and you think you can pull it off, have him be funny.

Given what you know of them, how would you try and charm your players if you'd just met them and really wanted to make a good impression? Have him act like that.

IME, it's not so mch how much help the character provides, or how sympathetic you make him with family and friends that makes the players like him, it's how well you pull off being likable.

[Jerry Wright 307]

Just because he's evil doesn't mean he doesn't like to party. He could be the type who likes to throw his money around, if only to get people on his side so he can use them later.

Feasting and partying is always a good way to get people to like you. Especially if part of your expenditure is apparent generosity and charity. The PCs can find out later that this wonderful benefactor hands out money so that he can control the people he's been generous to.

The ordinary people can have nothing but good to say about him, but some few have reason to understand his generosity and hate him, though they'd be afraid to show more than a hint of that, usually in a refusal to speak about him. One of the local shopkeepers, maybe, who's store is one day no longer his own, or a family of tenant farmers who used to own the land they're working.

He could even be generous to the PCs, by paying for their rooms, or offering them a place at his table. There they could see the servants flinch when he moves too suddenly, or cast their eyes down when he addresses them. And the servants who don't work in the house, like the huntsman or the woodsman could be a bit gruff in their assessment of the lord of the manor. More sour looks than sour speech, though; even they have reason to fear him.

Subtlety is the key. Enough subtle hints, and even the densest player will catch on that "this guy's not as nice as he pretends to be".

[Kobold Catgirl]

Thanks for the help. I'm going to be giving him two daughters and a generous nature. His villainy will be linked to his older daughter being in the process of a strange premature Bleaching.

[LazarX]

Go to the tvtropes site and look up "Affably Evil".

[Kobold Catgirl]

That's the plan, LazarX. Trick is not channelling the halfling cleric from before. :P
I introduced him yesterday in a dangerous forest, and their basic response was "okay, he's way too helpful, he's gonna rob us". Over time, I hope to convince them he's a genuinely nice guy.
Then they'll find out he's working with pretty much every villain in the setting in some manner or another.

[Alitan]

Have him give some genuinely-useful "stuff:" introductions to persons of influence is ALWAYS appreciated (by wise PCs). And it means you can have the PCs get used to meeting nice people through him -- associate "nice" with him via other NPCs, so the party doesn't spend time watching you play HIM and wondering what's going on.