Alignments: Lawful Evil Edition

[New Willinium]

Lawful Evil characters have always fascinated me, not only because they are the most likely to be able to work cohesively with a Good party, but because they themselves are the most likely to be converted to good by their friendships with Good characters or vice versa.

Now what is Lawful Evil you may ask? According to Dungeon and Dragons "A lawful evil character sees a well-ordered system as being easier to exploit and shows a combination of desirable and undesirable traits. Examples of this alignment include tyrants, devils, corrupt officials, and undiscriminating mercenary types who have a strict code of conduct."

These people are those who will seek power within the conducts of the law or their own honor codes and will NOT break it until forced. So with that in mind what are your favorite examples of Lawful Evil characters or Organizations?

I think that my favorite examples of this kind of character, and there are a lot so I'll only name a few, tend to be of similar natures.

First off is one that everyone knows: Chancellor Sheev Palpatine of the Clone Wars Trilogy. This senator from Naboo managed to orchestrate a war to take over the galaxy all the while manipulating the bloated senate of the Republic into voting him into power again and again. All because he appeared trustworthy. He became so loved that when he created the Empire signing the death of the Republic it was met with cheers. "So this is how democracy ends. With cheering applause." I think the Padme quote goes.


Another great example would be Vlad von Carstein from Warhammer. I HIGHLY recommend reading the Vampire Wars trilogy in order to see what I am getting at for this one. You can just throw in the Dark Lord Straud as well for a very similar character.

Finally I'll choose Graven Ashe from Tyranny. Graven is a father to his men, and his aegis allows them to survive wounds that should have killed them by absorbing the damage himself, and yet his racism towards the people of the Lower Tiers prevents him and his Disfavored from replenishing his forces, and he has absolutely no compunctions with putting an entire town to the torch because a single beggar helped out the rebels.His kind nature is only reserved for his men and a few select allies.

So what do you think about the Lawful Evil Alignment? Do you think that it can be interesting to RP within the confines of an otherwise Good group? What do you think about it within the confines of Pathfinder where the forces of Good, Evil, Chaotic, and Law are ALL physical tangible forces of reality that exist.

[rakshasa72]

Lawful Evil is actually the best alignment in Pathfinder:Kingmaker. I might be bias because that was my alignment in my first full play through. Now trying to play as a Lawful Good and having many regrets.

[IlluminaZero]

I find lawful alignments to generally be more interesting to play - Namely as it forces the player to clearly define their central principles and try to uphold them. In a way I consider it much like moral development. Basically Justice Based Morality is "Lawful" with conventional, pre-conventional, and "care based morality" (hah) neutral to chaotic due to lacking true central principles.

I think the biggest failing of roleplaying lawful character is assuming they will always adhere to society's rules. That is not necessarily true if the rules of society violate their own personal principles - And that dilemma can lead to good drama.

[rakshasa72]

I said it in another thread but, repeat it here. A mistake players make in RPGs is to play the Alignment and not the Character. Think of what your character is like and then find the alignment that is the closest fit. Don't let the alignment rule the character. If a character's action cause an alignment shift it might be more interesting to Role-Play the struggles when actions don't always live up to the ideals. This is why in my LG play through I'll sometimes make a LE or LN choices if I think it fits. Hell, a couple of times I went full CE. As I am role-playing a character that absolutely hates the Fey (chosen enemy). This is way more fun.

[My Name is Mud]

Alignment's been a basically dead mechanic in any serious modern tabletop game for years and I cannot wait until CRPG's catch up. 5e having literally zero mechanics that interact with alignment is a huge positive and will hopefully be the final death blow to one of the great GM headaches of all-time.

[Mortheim]

I love this thread[www.giantitp.com] on giantitp. I think it describes lawful evil pretty well.

[New Willinium]

Originally posted by Mortheim:

I love this thread[www.giantitp.com] on giantitp. I think it describes lawful evil pretty well.

It really is one of my favorite discussion on the subject of alignments. Giant In the Playground never disappoints.