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Any character that doesn't hinder the party should be fine, regardless of its alignment. But whether or not it hinders the party depends a lot on the party and the campaign. If your party has a jerk player playing a paladin, then things could go bad really quick even when playing helpful evil.
My advice would be to run the concept by the group and see if anyone thinks it might be a problem. And if the group does think it could be a problem then just file the character away for a later campaign, and try again in the future. I have some character concepts I have been sitting on for years. Maybe some day I'll get to bring them to life.
I'd feel great about it! That's how evil characters are supposed to be played IMHO. Evil PCs have always been a part of the game and they can add a lot of texture to the experience when done properly.
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Sure, why not?
"I, GARLAND, WILL, KNOCK YOU ALL DOWN!"
If no one can tell if you are evil because everything you do is good, then what is the point of having an 'E' written on your sheet?
Personally, I don't think that anyone else at the table would know or care and that it won't really end up giving you much enjoyment either, but if it appeals to you I don't see the harm.
A good portion of why I do not like "evil campaigns" is that good and evil are asymmetrical in how they are treated by the game. After all, an evil character who avoids good as assiduously as good characters avoid evil comes across as an unpleasant psychopath when we want to allow for the possibility of an evil character to be perfectly charming, a pillar of the community, even perhaps renowned for their charity whose evil is fundamentally about "what they get up to in the basement".
Evil and Good are asymmetric in that good is treated as aspirational- you have to keep doing good acts and avoid doing any evil acts, whereas anybody can end up as capital E Evil with a few evil acts, no matter how they spend the rest of their time. So for me, "being evil" is more the point where you risk losing control of your character than a premise for a campaign.
I mean when we get to the point of justifying how our actions are in fact evil with stuff like "I rescued the child trapped under the burning cart because they will be more useful to my schemes indebted to me than as a charred corpse" rather than "their cries for help were displeasing, and I was in position to rectify the situation" because the latter is too close to selfless, we're running uncomfortably close to parody.
You could just play lawful evil, a character who knows they are evil but agree's with the goals of good but they are willing to do the things that the 'good' characters are not willing to do because it is 'necessary and it has to get done for the greater good'.
Like the agent from 'Serenity'. He knew he was evil. He believed what he did was for the betterment of all in the long run.
Moriarty: Look at you Sherlock. You on the side of the angels. Your boring!
Sherlock: Take a look again Moriarty. I am on the side of the angels but do not ever mistake me for one of them.
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Here's my go-to for this- first posted this back in August of 2016...
I enjoy the odd bit of Evil with some humanity attached...
In a short campaign set up to let us blow off some steam, we had a Red Mantis Assassin on leave to look after his sister (who was, for the record, a Chaotic Good Oracle affiliated with Desna that the local authorities thought was insane).
The Red Mantis was a terrible, terrible guy in most respects- for example, he got tired of negotiating his sister's release from the asylum and simply murdered the people keeping her locked up, then framed a local pickpocket who went to the gallows for the crimes, all without telling his sister what he'd done- but his love for his sister and his desire to see her happy were very real (which is why he didn't tell her about massacring six unarmed, well-intentioned people to get her out).
Likewise, he was loyal to and protective of the other members of their little band- he would never betray any of them, and anyone trying to hurt them would have to do it over his dead body. Of course, anyone not in his little subgroup of valued friends got no such loyalty.
You can absolutely play an evil character who thinks they're doing the right thing... and in real life, there's plenty of debate to kick around.
But in Pathfinder, Evil is an objectively discernible quantity.
They can also be fun studies in character dynamics- Our group has included a Lawful Evil Red Mantis Assassin who took a sabbatical because his Chaotic Good Desna-worshipping Oracle sister was locked up in an asylum. He may have been evil, but he loved his sister, and he damn sure wasn't going to leave her locked up somewhere. With that said, he also never, ever told her exactly what he did to spring her, because he knew it would just upset her, and he didn't feel like having that argument. He was loyal (to his family, friends, and to the Red Mantis), brave, and capable. He also firmly believed that the ends justified the means, that threats and murder were a more efficient way to deal with recalcitrant sorts than gentle persuasion, and that mercy was abject stupidity. He was never going to betray the party, and he would have died in his sister's defense, but pretty much anyone else was fair game.
I'm playing that sort of character. Not exactly the joke character that needs to be tricked into doing good, but actually a rather good and decent person who is down on themselves about anything that is personally beneficial. They're someone whose moral ideal is the selfless impoverished monk in perpetual servitude to man, but instead he haggles with shop keepers and works hard for a few minor comforts; all this while gleefully telling people about how he's screwing over others by asking for a tip or paying himself a wage for book keeping.
So far, great success on player and DM reception.
If the player is a cannibalistic child murderer who needs to be tricked into killing monsters and eating hamburgers through the use of illusion spells, then I wouldn't expect players to be happy about babysitting the crazy character.
only if the people he helped come by to thank him later on.
"...curses, foiled again!.."
This does sound like a joke character. And it would probably work best as such. However, if that isn't what you want, there is some potential to be deeper.
Said Evil PC could be a member of an Evil organization or worship an Evil God, and in an attempt at sowing the seeds for a later redemption, another PC or NPC they are close to has purposely deceived the Evil character into believing they are furthering malicious ends by helping the party. This would be an ongoing deception to make the Evil character believe their organization/patron benefits from the party's actions. For example, a party member could tell the Evil PC that a cult of the Demon Lord known to be a rival to their own Demon Lord patron has set fire to a building, and that helping to put it out would thwart the rival's plan and any innocents saved denies the rival Demon Lord sacrifices. This could be used as a way of doing a "slow burn" redemption arc with the Evil Character having a gradually unfolding epiphany that they are much better off now than before and it is because of the Good they did. If one of my players had their heart set on doing this kind of character in a serious campaign, that's how I would handle it.
But it really would work WAY better as a joke character.
(I did say it was a weak attempt, hence being female)
?
(I did say it was a weak attempt, hence being female)?
Seems to mean the character was based on Batman, but with changes to make it different, like being female.
Personally, I have a character that's a bit of a Zorro type, except being female, and using dual swords.
(I did say it was a weak attempt, hence being female)?Seems to mean the character was based on Batman, but with changes to make it different, like being female.
Personally, I have a character that's a bit of a Zorro type, except being female, and using dual swords.
Are you perhaps familiar with this old TV show? It could have provided some inspiration for such a character.
(I did say it was a weak attempt, hence being female)?Seems to mean the character was based on Batman, but with changes to make it different, like being female.
Personally, I have a character that's a bit of a Zorro type, except being female, and using dual swords.
Are you perhaps familiar with this old TV show? It could have provided some inspiration for such a character.
No, but I should maybe check out that show. The character actually came from a dream and a resulting sketch back in the 90s. It was probably inspired by the Zorro series that aired in the 90s, but dreams are weird and who can be sure where stuff comes from.
Oh. I just remembered that it also had inspiration from the Phantom comic strip. Though, I liked the look of Zorro a lot better than the Phantom.
Yeah, that’s what I meant.(I did say it was a weak attempt, hence being female)?Seems to mean the character was based on Batman, but with changes to make it different, like being female.
Personally, I have a character that's a bit of a Zorro type, except being female, and using dual swords.
Ah, got it.
Sounds like you're doing it right to me. A campaign-based RPG without character development is like a fireball without bat guano. It might work, but it just won't smell right.
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I’m weird. The thing is, I often get my characters reshaped by the game they’re played in.... None of that was in the original plans, but the character got reshaped by the game.That's not weird. That's perfectly normal, and it is good.
Seconded. No character concept of mine ever survived contact with actual play.
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then there's always the option of looking at things thru "evil glasses", seeing the "real evil" in many "good" actions...
Your Approval Fills Me With Shame Trope.
Just be sure to talk your character over with the other PLAYERS (not the characters), so they can get in on the "joke" too. They can even use it in their own character development
Other players assisting your PC development..
This way you are playing WITH the other players, rather than AGAINST them...