CREATING EVIL

ADVENTURERS
"Do unto others before they do unto you."

-Slippery Ketta
The normal rules for character creation suffice for creating
evil adventurers. Regardless of a wizard's alignment,
all the rules related to wizards apply. That said, you
should pay particular attention to a few elements.
Class: Most classes are not restricted to a particular
alignment. The cavalier (see Heroes of the Forsotten
Kinsdoms) is a challenging exception, though, because
the character must have an alignment that befits a
virtue. That doesn't rule out a player taking the role
of an evil cavalier. It just makes it tricky. Such a character
could be a fallen paladin or an extremist who is
cleaving to a fanatical view of the virtue and thereby
working evil. Alternatively, you could alter the feature
to accommodate a vice.
When a player chooses a class, work together to discover
how he or she can use that class's features and
powers for evil. You might want to swap out keywords
to better accommodate the character. For example, you
could replace radiant damage with necrotic damage for
a death priest.
Race: A character of any race can be evil. An evil
campaign might suggest using monstrous races, such as
goblins or kobolds, or races whose stories have strong
evil overtones, such as the githyanki and bladelings.
However, racial entries for these creatures as presented
in Monster Manual and Monster Manual 2 are not balanced
for player use and present challenges when used
in a campaign. Rather than using the racial mechanics
described in these sources, you could reskin an existing
race. For example, a goblin character could use halfling
mechanics without changing anything about the
race except its story. A full-blooded ore can use half-ore
mechanics, and a githyanki can get away with using
githzerai statistics.

PLAYER CONSENT
Use caution when allowing players to play evil characters.
Disruptions aside, many players are uncomfortable
with the idea of playing evil adventurers or participating
in games that focus on such characters. DuNGEONS
& DRAGONS is a game of heroism, where good fights
against evil. Therefore, evil characters turn the game
on its head and might create situations where evil
wins and creatures of virtue and goodness suffer for it.
Even though you might be amenable to allowing
evil characters, be mindful of all players' interests,
and be sure every participant is comfortable with
the direction the game will take before embarking
on such a journey.
CHAPTER 2 I Evil Campaians

Managing Evil Characters

Few Dungeon Masters are willing to consider allowing
players to take up evil adventurer roles, and for good
reason. One out-of-control evil character causes friction
in a group. Unless somehow checked, the entire
game can be derailed. Of course, interesting roleplaying
and story opportunities arise from the occasional use

of an evil adventurer or adventuring party. In the right

situation and with proper planning, you can turn what
might have been a disruptive experience into a rewarding
one.

Cooperative Play
DuNGEONS & DRAGONS establishes two sides-good and
evil- in the cosmic struggle. The game expects players
to fight for good or at least lean in that direction.
At some level, this expectation stems from the idea
that the best D&D games are the ones that demonstrate
heroism, cooperation, and boldness. Adventures
assume characters will pit their talents against a cast
of villainous foes and monsters, explore dangerous
environments, and wrest fabulous treasures as spoils.
Alignment has nothing to do with a character's ability
to participate in these scenarios. It does, however, have
everything to do with how a character engages in the
scenario and his or her willingness to see a quest to its
conclusion.
The difficulty many players encounter is that the
evil alignment suggests a license to behave badly in
the game. By scribbling evil in the alignment box, a
player is somehow no longer obligated to participate in
the team effort. Personal interests trump any quest the
adventurers might undertake. And when competing
agendas clash, conflict results-conflict that tears the
party apart.
Evil characters might be self-interested scoundrels,
but it is almost always in their best interest to throw
in their lot with other characters. A lone adventurer
stands little chance of defeating a dragon or surviving
an encounter with a beholder, but an adventurer with
powerful allies in tow can. Even villains understand
their best chance of survival comes from surrounding
themselves with like-minded allies.
The trick is to remind players their responsibilities
extend beyond personal objectives to encompass protecting
the links that bind the party together.

Unity
Even a party oflawful good adventurers will have a
hard time finding success if each character pursues a
different agenda. You shouldn't expect a party of evil
characters to have any more success in a similar situation.
The strongest and most unified adventuring
parties have clear missions in which their objectives are
more important than characters' personal agendas. In
other words, the major quest is always
more important than a character's
minor quest. As long as a party has
an objective of equal importance to
each of its members, you'll find evil
characters can set aside their private
ambitions long enough to achieve
the party's goals. Use any or all of the
following techniques to keep your
players focused on the goal, whether
you have one evil adventurer or an
entire party full of evil characters.

Positive
Connections

The most powerful tool for encouraging

unity is to urge players to build
positive connections between their
characters. Have each player connect
his or her character to at least
one other adventurer in the party.
Establish these connections during
character creation to ensure they
figure into characters' identities and
motivations. The more connections
you create between individual characters
and the larger quest, the less
likely players are to lose sight of what they're doing.
Good link options include siblings, romance, debts,
shared enemies, enduring friendship, and shared
beliefs.

Common Enemy
Evil characters turn on one another when they regard
each other as potential enemies. When suspicions are
left to fester, betrayal and treachery tear a group apart
in little time. In addition to positive connections, you
can keep a party together by presenting an enemy
more threatening than the enemies they see among
themselves. If characters feel threatened by a common
foe, they will have little choice but to work together to
survive.
The common enemy should be a campaign villain
(page 43). You should create personal connections
between the foe (or foes) and each adventurer to ensure
personal enmity. For example, in an Underdark campaign,
the common enemy might be dark elves or a
particular drow house. Or adventurers might find
themselves fighting a cult dedicated to Torog, a demon
lord, or an archdevil. Then again, a good-aligned adventuring
party could be a powerful threat that surfaces
from time to time when the do-gooders make it their
quest to put down evil's champions.

Patron
Connections and common enemies can offer some success
at keeping an evil adventuring party together. But
sometimes you might need to take a stronger hand to
keep the group united, and that's when a patron can
help. A patron is a character, organization, or power
that employs adventurers as agents in the world.
A patron sends characters on missions and either
rewards them for their successes or punishes them for
their failures. A patron can appear at the start of your
campaign, in which case adventurers are likely goons
or lackeys. Or a patron might emerge later, approaching
the characters after they have made names for
themselves.
For a patron to work in your campaign, evil adven
turers must fear him or her more than they fear each
other. Thus, a patron must be powerful, dangerous,
and more villainous than the adventurers. He or she
must have a connection to each character in the group
to dissuade defections and treachery within the ranks.
To coerce characters to act, a patron might threaten
characters' loved ones (a good choice for unaligned
adventurers), feed their addictions, withhold information
about some important objective, or lend aid. A

patron can also offer wealth, power, glory, and status to

encourage loyalty.
Even though the classic patron is often a major villain,
your group's patron need not be. The party might
CHAPTER 2 I Evil Campainns

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