I had this idea while I was cooking lunch today. She's a ranger (hooded champion archetype). She's a freedom fighter who viciously opposes the local lords who rule over the region with an iron fist and enforce the law by death and torture. They are the enemies of the people, and they must face justice. Problem is, her version of justice is to kill or cast out propertyless any nobles she can get her hands on, and publicly execute the worst offenders in ways so brutal and painful it will serve as a deterrent to other tyrants. Those misguided citizens who won't join her rebellion? Traitors to the people who must be dealt with. Make her lose her temper, and she lashes out violently. When she kills someone she's angry at, she tends to fall into a deep bloodlust, and inflicts as much pain as possible before ending their lives to sate her desire for revenge. She is thoroughly convinced that she is the good guy in all of this, even though she causes more death and misery than the a~~%$~&s she wants to depose. Every time she does something brutal or unnecessary like having a noble's children executed, she finds some way of rationalizing it as the morally correct course of action, even though it isn't morally correct at all. The people she "protects" are more afraid of her than they are of the local lords. She's a very intense person who speaks in a low tone of voice, and is quite persuasive, largely because of how uncompromising and threatening she sounds. When she flips out, it's truly intimidating, because she makes all sorts of over the top violent threats, and is actually willing to carry them out a fair amount of the time. She will try to protect the innocent as best she can without thought of reward, but she does so with death, hate, pain, and revenge, not justice and long term solutions. Her alignment is Chaotic Evil, but she would never consider that she could be one of the bad guys in this war.
Here's her character sheet:
http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=30290
Is it a good build? Did I choose feats and magic items well?
Do you like this character concept? Should I put her into my campaign setting as a villain, or reserve her in case I ever need a character to play on short notice? If I do put her on reserve as PC, and then end up playing her, how should I portray her at the table? How do I underline how unreasonable and violent she is without going over the top? How do I avoid starting inter-party conflict with a character as extremist as this?
Sounds like a great villain in a campaign but I know I would never want to play with a violent, brutal, vicious sociopath as a character.
I prefer to play heroes and frankly any character I would play would plant her 6 feet under as soon as she showed her stripes as a murderous, childish, petulant psycho.
The fact that she is delusional in thinking she is a good guy does not change the fact she is evil and relishes it. She enjoys the killing, does it capriciously and for purely selfish reasons. As well she will kill the innocent who do not follow her reasoning.
Stereotypical villain but an ass as a character.
Make her lawful evil and more like the Agent from 'Serenity' and then you have something that could POSSIBLY travel with other people.
Sounds like a fun character and an interesting concept. It won't fly in a group with a paladin or anyone of good alignment, probably, but you may coast below the party's radar if you're with a neutral group and they're scared enough of you to shut up and leave you alone...
Having her "flip out" makes me think of rage of some sort. Why did you choose ranger?
Or, if you like:
V: What they did to me was monstrous.
Evey: And they created a monster.
It sounds like an interesting concept, but one that would be best to get buy-in from the GM and the rest of the group before running as a player. Definitely would work as a villain against a party trying to straighten out the kingdom the way a pack of good heroes would.
Having her "flip out" makes me think of rage of some sort. Why did you choose ranger?
I saw the hooded champion archetype, and I really liked it and the Robin Hood feel of it, but at the same time I wanted to roll up an evil character. So, I went with the idea of someone who tries to act like a Robin Hood, but is so over the line with her behavior that she is as bad as anything she opposes.
It's not that the concept couldn't work. It has been done before in fiction. The problem is getting it to work with your group. If the group has a similar mentality and can work together, it's fine. If the character might cause friction and a dissolving of the group, it's not.
REALLY depends on your group.
Honestly the first thing it sounded like to me was Dr. Doom. Horrible dictator who truly believes he is the best one for his nation to be in charge and the citizens lives would be much worse without him.
Heaven help ANY who stand between him and his right to rule...
He wants his people prosperous... but if they cross him in the slightest or catch him on a bad day... They'll die very easily.
Technically they ran a Doom 2099 comic for a few years where he was technically the 'PC' trying to reclaim his throne.
An interesting character and the best of the 2099 books imo. However, I'm not sure I would want to game with the character. Honestly I think that kind of character works best as an NPC. Maybe not even the 'big bad'... but maybe as npc the players can help.. or hunt depending on how the game goes.
On mechanics, maxing Climb is one of those things which is less useful than you think. It gets replaced by magic so easily. I'd put 1 point in to each of several occasionally useful skills (Ride, Swim, Knowledges) instead.
If you're doing monstrous things in character and PC glow is preventing you from being targeted for it, it kind of disrupts the game IMO. If you're 'evil' but it's just backstory and occasional muttering under your breath, why bother?
Neat character idea! You could use her for both? I have played a wizard character, who I am holding onto for a good day, that I would say provides me some insight to this, although she may not be so far as your character idea.
It might help to make sure you are really familiar with the group when you use her as a PC. Also it may be worth prefacing that you do not plan on causing inter-party strife. If your group members don't feel comfortable have a back-up char, in which case have her become the main villain to your next campaign you GM due to being forced to do all the dirty work alone and thus pushing her further over the cliff. :D
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Don't discount Climb too easily. I wouldn't max it out, but ensuring you have a +5 after armor penalties is easy and is quite useful in practice. I use Climb often, because you can't always count on a PFS party to supply magical flight. Also, because it's just a lot cheaper. It won't work every time, but it'll do pretty well in half of them.
Incidentally, am I the only one reminded of Venom when reading her description of the character's thoughts/motivations/actions?
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I'd advice against using her as a PC in most situations. There are some situations where she could shine though. For example, in an urban sandbox campaign she'd be an interesting character. Now if you can find a GM who'd run a game like that for a single person and would enjoy doing so, then I'd say go for it.
Don't use her for an adventurepath. She'd have no business there.
I'd advice against using her as a PC in most situations. There are some situations where she could shine though. For example, in an urban sandbox campaign she'd be an interesting character. Now if you can find a GM who'd run a game like that for a single person and would enjoy doing so, then I'd say go for it.
Don't use her for an adventurepath. She'd have no business there.
I wouldn't say that about all the APs. Way of the Wicked, for one, is based around evil PCs. Some of the others are a bit...morally ambiguous, like Skull and Shackles or Council of Thieves.
IMO it is too over the top evil (too much flipping out and "bloodlust" and "sate her desire for revenge") to work with a party. Mechanically, most people would take Many Shot before Far Shot.
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I like the concept, but you should talk to your DM, because parties' tolerance for inner table conflict varies. You should also be able to accept that if you have a good party, your character will be confronted and probably killed, or kicked-out of the party. But if you are in an evil party they may not care and may join in ...which makes for some disturbing role playing.
If it were me, I would not tell the other players your concept and kind of let the horrible vicious side ... come out slowly , maybe 2 or 3 levels later.
Although posting it here may tip them off.
Also I would love to see you role play what happens when you realize the first time, that you detect as evil. Do you deny the results? Do you assume the character that tells you is a liar and is out to get you? DO you assume the gods are against you.
It all really depends on the party and how you play your evil up. Make it a point to avoid PVP and you can avoid a huge percentage of the problems associated with it.
I'm playing an Antipaladin in a Skull and Shackles game. He just joined the party from being on the brig of a recently captured ship. The rest of the party is neutral (I think there's ONE CG character, but she doesn't have detect evil) and a little too afraid of my character to keep him in line, especially since when he crosses the line it's usually for the overall advantage of the party. Considering he is not stupid, he doesn't just murder everyone he meets, etc, but he has taken time to torture captured enemies, talk back to/threaten NPCs who give him orders, and overall be a serious jerk.
It seems a bit silly, but when I play CE, I ask myself "What would Eric Cartman from South Park do?" He's a great example of a total sociopath who always has a reason for his calculated evil. Yet, overall, he doesn't usually alienate his friends for no reason (except Kyle).
The Anti-Hero* is definitely a possible PC character concept. But it may require a whole group being ok with it.
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*TV Tropes link. Click at your own risk.
I really, really like this. I may be playing with a character like this already in my kingmaker game. The opinions of fellow players should be noted and there should be lines that should not be crossed. That said she's damn interesting.