Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Reality_Czech 03-13-08, 12:33 PM	Hey guys, I'm making a nasty caster for an upcoming evil character campaign. I know this build is wretchedly minmaxed and uses questionable build methods, but the campaign is meant to be "ultimate evil, ultimate power", so I'm no going to appologize for wringing a lot out of the character. I'm giving serious thought to spending his allowed starting wealth (level 13 starting point) and then eschewing loot from that point on. I basically only see this character being interested in knowledge and arcane/divine power, not wealth or shiny toys. Class/Level stuff: 5 Wizard (Diviner, banned Evocation)/1 Mindbender/2 Ur-Priest/4 Mystic Theurge (After LA buyoff) At level 20 the targeted build goal is 5 Wiz/ 1 MB/ 2 UP/ 8 MT/4 Fatespinner, but this isn't etched in stone. Backstory Yyves was a young human wizard’s apprentice who worked as a scribe for a wizard’s guild/school. He trains as a wizard and is taught to worship Mystra as all initiates of the guild do. He is gifted and slightly rebellious, so he begins to sneak out of the academy at night to experience life out in the city when he can get away with it. He makes friends with street rats, thugs, low level members of thieves’ guilds, gamblers, and sailors. During this period he begins to become more “street-wise” and develop some of the interpersonal skills the wizard’s guild had not (i.e. Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Sense Motive, etc.) When he turns 18, he begins to doubt that Mystra is the “only way to go” and learns from a Mindbender working for one of the local Thieves’ guilds how to use magic to affect the will of those around him. He begins to find ways to exploit his power to gain power and influence on those around him, and participates in an illegal card tournament late one night. He wins, but on the way home is assaulted by a hideous man, bitten, thrown into an alley and discarded. He awakes as a Gravetouched Ghoul, unable (and unwilling) to return to the Wizard’s Guild. He sees his becoming undead as proof that Mystra had turned her back on him, and vows to never be so weak as to worship a god again. He learns to be an Ur-Priest. “Mystra can rot in Hell, if she hadn’t discarded me I wouldn’t have wound up a walking corpse”. Yyves travels for nearly 75 years, slowly learning how to pass as normal in “polite society”, evading those that would destroy him for being undead, and eventually decides his lifetime goal is a simple one. Live forever and learn to wield the power of magic like no other. He finds a hermetic Mystic Theurge and begins to study both arcane and divine spells. Current personality, outlook, and habits Now he wanders the land, studying whenever and wherever possible, moving constantly to avoid persecution for being undead, he’s now 345 years old and quite bored with unlife, pathologically and whimsically destructive. He has no desire for possessions, as they are impermanent and meaningless; he only wants more power, knowledge, and the opportunity to destroy. I know that this is rudimentary at the momet, I'm hoping more will either occur to me or you folks might have some links or suggestions you could provide to round this out. I'd love to hear anyone/everyone's feedback, I'm excited about finally finding a true Chaotic Evil personality I'm actually interested in roleplaying, but I'd like to hear opinions on character backstory (depth and breadth), personality quirks, etc. Thanks in advance!
JulesCARV 03-13-08, 08:34 PM	Your character is a mindbender (at least a little bit), and thus not unfamiliar with the arts of deception and manipulation, and also probably a skilled liar thanks to the ur-priest prerequisites, and he's banned evocation, so while he's certainly destructive, his idea of destruction doesn't involve throwing fireballs around. I think that Iago from Othello is a good model for whimsical, chaotic evil destruction with a bit of subtlety. Iago is driven by vicious hatred and a desire to destroy, but he's not blatant. He quietly sows doubts while he pretends to be trying to molify them. He eggs others on into destroying themselves, if he sees any way to guide them onto a self-destructive path. If he's in a party with clerics (say, a cleric of Cyric or the like), he might have a problem with that, since, for one thing, since he'll have a level adjustment and few hit dice, and the cleric will presumably be a full rebuker, the cleric might be able to assume command over him at some point (at low levels) -- and that's in addition to the fact that this guy hates gods on principle. He might try to subtly guide such a cleric into some self-destructive path. Sample dialogue: (After several weeks worth of subtle bluff checks) You (making another bluff check): "Garreth, I'm telling you this as a friend -- please don't try to kill Elminster. You cannot serve Cyric as a pile of ashes. I know that we have had our differences over theology, but just look at this from a rational perspective: your quest to destroy the Harpers cannot lead to anything but your own destruction." Cleric (no sense motive ranks): "Bah! You are just a blasphemer seeking to deny my Lord his glory as I destroy the Harpers in his name. You would not be seeking to stop me if you did not fear my success and Cyric's triumph!" You: (Wow. This rocks.)
Reality_Czech 03-14-08, 03:02 PM	Interesting concept; I was thinking a little more blatant, but I think I may go a little more this route.