An inquisitor is a class that can be played by either good or evil, and their role is to protect against evil. They cannot cast spells of an alignment opposed to their own or deity’s, as indicated by the chaotic, evil, good, and lawful descriptors in their spell. Inquisitions are primarily for inquisitors, but Clerics and Druids can take them if they want to give up free spell slots.
An inquisitor cannot control the battlefield or slay enemies with spells like a Wizard or Sorcerer. As a ¾ BAB class with a d8 hit die, they cannot expect to hop into the battlefield.
The Inquisitor only knows a limited number of spells and does not gain bonus spells listed for each domain or spell slots. They use their level as their effective cleric level when casting divine spells. The class was originally evil-only, so it can be played by both good and evil players.
Inquisitors are bound to the alignment and general tenants of their deity like a cleric. They are not bound to a code and can cast any spell they know at any time without preparing it ahead of time. The spells on the Inquisitor are indeed evil-sounding in nature, but remember, you are the Inquisitor! You hand down the spells.
In summary, an inquisitor is a class that protects against evil using chaotic, evil, good, and lawful spells. They are bound to their deity’s alignment and can cast any spell they know at any time without preparing it ahead of time.
📹 Baldur’s Gate 3 – Don’t let Lae’zel do THIS one thing
In Baldur’s Gate 3, you will sooner or later reach the Githyanki Creche, where you will have to make a choice that can severely …
Why were the Inquisitors so weak?
The Inquisitors, often composed of former Jedi, initially lacked the dark side of the Force and used the defensive fighting discipline common to most of the Jedi Order. Darth Vader noticed this limitation and implemented an aggressive training program to correct it. This fear-based, dark, and abusive training transformed the Inquisitor’s fighting form from passive defensive to one of unrelenting offense. Their combat style aimed to quickly overpower surviving Jedi through relentless barrages of saber strikes, broad slashes and sweeps, and fast parrying counters.
The Inquisitors also aimed to hamper Jedi concentration and prevent them from falling back on their Force abilities by instilling fear and doubt through direct threats or reminding them of their failures and insecurities. Strong emotions, pain, and exhaustion could hamper a Jedi’s connection to the Force by making them feel cut off and isolated.
Despite their combat style, the Inquisitors could make short work of fledgling Jedi Padawans and ill-prepared Jedi Knights. Well-trained and seasoned lightsaber duelists, such as Ahsoka Tano and the former Sith Lord Darth Maul, were able to circumvent their tactics with relative ease.
Darth Vader imparted lessons to the inquisitors during their first training sessions, including teaching loss, having expended several inquisitors of at least one of their limbs, and the value of persistence. The Inquisitors were also subjected to extensive torture and mutilation, fueling their connection to the dark side. Over time, the Inquisitors became some of the most skilled and feared lightsaber fighters in the galaxy, but were deliberately trained to not surpass the prowess of a Sith Lord in both understanding the dark side and light-saber skills.
What is the Inquisitor spellcasting ability?
Inquisitors are divine casters who possess a specific level of knowledge, enabling them to cast any combination of their known spells per day. For example, a 4th-level inquisitor may know four 1st-level spells and two 2nd-level spells.
What is the strongest Inquisitor?
The Grand Inquisitor, who had previously served as a temple guard, was instructed to accompany a gifted detainee to her designated cell, touching her heart in the process.
What powers do Inquisitors have?
Steel Inquisitors were a type of Hemalurgic construct on Scadrial created from humans. They were created and controlled by the Lord Ruler as the policing force for his ministries. They made up the Canton of Inquisition, which was responsible for controlling the use and spread of Allomancy. Inquisitors had five steel spikes, four bronze spikes between their ribs, and most could see into other people’s futures by burning atium. The page needs to be updated with new information for The Lost Metal.
Do Inquisitors get domain spells?
The inquisitor’s level determines the number of domain powers granted, but they do not gain bonus spells or spell slots. They use their level as their effective cleric level to determine the power and effect of their domain powers. If the inquisitor has cleric levels, one of their two domain selections must be the same as an inquisitor. Levels of cleric and inquisitor stack for determining domain powers and abilities, but not for bonus spells. The game is not broken, but it makes the player feel like they are. They were trying to create a SUPER summoner by selecting the animal domain.
Which Inquisitor killed the most Jedi?
Darth Vader was dispatched with the objective of eliminating any surviving Jedi who had evaded the initial execution of Water 66, a mission that was successfully accomplished.
Are the Inquisitors evil?
The Inquisitorius, also known as Imperial Inquisitors, are supporting antagonists in the Star Wars franchise. They are the Galactic Empire’s dark side Force-sensitives created after the end of the Clone Wars. They were former Jedi knights tasked with tracking down and killing remaining Jedi who survived Order 66. They were equipped with black and grey combat armor and red spinning double-bladed lightsabers. They also searched for Force-sensitives, from civilians to Imperial cadets, and would execute them if they didn’t join the Empire.
The Inquisitors were agents of the Sith, tracking down and eliminating enemies, including Jedi and Sith like Darth Maul, and hunting down members of the Rebel Alliance. Their goal was to leave Imperial rule unopposed and prevent the possible return of the Jedi Order.
Who was the most brutal Inquisitor?
The grand inquisitor was the head of the Inquisition in Spain, with ecclesiastical jurisdiction from the Vatican. He was assisted by a council of five members and consultors, who filled all offices by agreement between the government and the grand inquisitor. The council, especially after Philip II’s reign, put more control of the institution into the hands of the civil power. After Clement VII’s papacy, priests and bishops were sometimes judged by the Inquisition.
The first grand inquisitor in Spain was Tomás de Torquemada, who became synonymous with brutality and fanaticism associated with the Inquisition. Torquemada used torture and confiscation to terrorize his victims, and his methods were the product of a time when judicial procedure was cruel by design. The sentencing of the accused took place at the auto-da-fé, an elaborate public expression of the Inquisition’s power. The number of burnings at the stake during Torquemada’s tenure is generally estimated to be about 2, 000.
Ferdinand and Isabella issued an edict on March 31, 1492, giving Spanish Jews the choice of exile or baptism, leading to over 160, 000 Jews being expelled from Spain. Francisco, Cardinal Jiménez de Cisneros, promoted the suppression of Muslims with the same zeal that Torquemada had directed at Jews. In 1502, he ordered the proscription of Islam in Granada, the last Muslim kingdom in Spain to fall to the Reconquista.
The Inquisition then devoted its attention to the Moriscos, Spanish Muslims who had previously accepted baptism. Expressions of Morisco culture were forbidden by Philip II in 1566, and within three years, persecution by the Inquisition gave way to open warfare between the Moriscos and the Spanish crown. By 1614, around 300, 000 people had been expelled from Spain entirely.
Do Inquisitors break the rule of 2?
The Rule of Two stipulates that there can only be two Sith at a time. However, the Knights of Ren and Inquisitors are not Sith, and thus do not affect this rule.
Why did the Inquisitors turn evil?
The events with Offee and Tano left the future Grand Inquisitor feeling disaffected and losing faith in the Jedi Order. This led him to fall to the dark side of the Force. However, the Pau’an remained a Jedi by the end of the Clone Wars. At the end of the war, the Supreme Chancellor, Darth Sidious, transformed the Republic into the Galactic Empire and appointed him as Grand Inquisitor of the Inquisitorius.
As Grand Inquisitor, he led other members of the Inquisitorius, including dark warriors like the Second Sister, Fifth Brother, Sixth Brother, Seventh Sister, Eighth Brother, Ninth Sister, and Tenth Brother, all of whom had roots in the Jedi Order.
What is the most powerful Inquisitor?
The Inquisitors’ power in the Force varies by individual, with the Grand Inquisitor being the strongest. They are more equipped to deal with surviving Jedi Padawans, but are easily outclassed by Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka Tano, and Darth Maul. However, Darth Vader is arguably the most powerful being to ever exist, created by the Force itself, performing unfathomable feats as both a Jedi and Sith. The Inquisitors are given much more training in lightsaber combat than the Force, with Vader taking a lumb from each to teach them loss.
This serves as a motivator for their lightsaber training, which is generally adequate to defeat hunted Jedi. Fortress Inquisitorius has a chamber holding the remains of a sampling of Jedi who were successfully killed, giving credit to the hunters’ skills. Most of these Jedi were eventually dispatched by other Force users, with Cal Kestis defeating the Second Sister, Kanan Jarrus besting the Grand Inquisitor, Ahsoka Tano making the Fifth Brother and Seventh Sister look silly, and Darth Maul killing the latter two off quickly.
📹 How to play an EVIL character WITHOUT ruining DND
Now YOU have what it takes to play an EVIL character without ruining DND! I hope you enjoy 🙂 For more dnd 5e content, check …
It’s cheating technically but if you’re trying to keep a good reputation with Lae’zel while also avoiding the terrible debuffs, there is a way to do it. Let Lae’zel sit in the chair but when the first dialogue option appears, switch to a different party member and move a box or some other object around in the infirmary. The doctor will notice and warn you against stealing, which cancels the previous dialogue. Now, you can have your main character sit in the chair and play out the scene normally but without upsetting Lae’zel. Win-win!
Laezel can actually do this event just fine. You can convince her to hold strong and she uses her prayer to get through the event and doesnt have debuffs. (Side note: I was also githyanki so I had special dialogue options) Allowing her to do this helps convince her Vlaakith is no ally. She stays blind to it at first but later revelations go much smoother.
In my current playthrough of just an OC Gith’Yanki and Lae’Zel alone on the journey with no other companions, this section was very different narratively. I also learned that if you go into turn based combat and kill/knock out the doctor before she escapes the room, the rest of the fortress will not be alerted to you and not be hostile, letting you go to the Inquisitor and have a 2 on 1 chat with Vlaakith as a loyal follower.
A couple small corrections: 1) The Creche is still in Act 1, not 2. Act 2 begins with your arrival in the Shadowcursed Lands.* 2) It’s not “the one and only Zai’thisk” – it’s heavily implied that there are many, possibly even one in every Creche. *Edit: It seems a lot of people get confused by the “You’re about to progress your adventure….” warning when you go to enter the Mountain Pass. That’s a trigger point that can cause the druid grove plot to advance, but it is NOT the act-change. if each of those warnings meant a change in acts, the game would have 4 acts, and 2 would be JUST the Mountain Pass (and entirely skippable). Larian themselves made it clear when the acts change, because there’s an achievement for each – and the “Enter Act 2” achievement pops when you enter the Shadow-cursed Lands.
I took a long rest without realizing Lae’zel had left the party to approach and talk to the Githyanki group by herself. When we left camp she was dead at their feet. Sneaking my character said in a whisper “killed by her own people”. Looking forward to the second play through where she stays alive LOL.
It honestly would’ve been awesome if that device actually worked, allowing you to go through the rest of the game uncorrupted with no brain worm powers for the whole party. No longer dreading the possibility of turning into a squid man would make sleeping a hell of a lot more enjoyable, maybe even boost everyone’s morale and fight better, lol.
note: I actually sent in Lae’zel alone, with my character being detached. The whole thing went by fast, and now that I check she has all 3 of these However. the tooltip says much more than shown. All 3 of them have an extra sentence: “The Githianki device failed to to harm your illithid parasite – perhaps consuming more would mend your broken mind” in that one, I did convince her to be open to upgrading the illithid powers, but haven’t done so yet. Guess it ain’t permament if one plays it right
I realized several hours into the game that I had crippled lae’zel. Sice the dc’s were 30 (practically impossible) I thought the game intended me to fail and continue. They never notify the player the permanent damage you’re making and they don’t let you heal lae’zel with a high level spell ehich kinda breaks table top rules.
If you let Lae’Zel enter the Zai’thisk and convince her to remain in the chair throughout, you will also get the Awakened perk. So far I have only encountered one other spot in Act 1 that will give you another buff to the Parasite, granting an Illithid power….even though I have not yet unlocked the powers tab.
I’m kind of conflicted about perusal these kinds articles, because part of me wants to know the best options but another part of me feels like i’m allowing these articles to steer my path in the game too much, rather than going in blind and making my own choices with all the consequences. Anyone else feel like that sometimes or am i just weird
Not sure if anyone else commented on this – going first instead of laezel normally causes disapproval, but you can say “Stand back, I’m going first.” and then “You would still be hunting for this place without my guidance. I will be cured first.” She actually respects your cockiness and you get +3 approval! (Letting her go first is +10.)
After I saw that I couldn’t succeed on Lae’zel’s rolls (she lost all three and lost 2 points to 3 differnt ability scores), I loaded the previous save, went to camp, removed her from the group, and went back in to do it myself. Afterwards, I put her back in the group so she could be there for the dialogues with the inquisitor and Vlaa’kith.
Huh. I don’t think she received any debuffs in my playthrough. I just had my ridiculously high charisma character + Shadowheart’s guidance (as well as some shameful save scumming) to persuade her out of the chair. I thought she might be perma debuffed after perusal this article, so I checked and nothing. I guess just have a bard/noble with high persuasion in your party?
Man it sometimes saddens me how much I’ve missed in Baldurs Gate 3 so far but then I see articles like this and am happy I made the right choice without even realizing it, at the time I was here, I saved beforehand but chose the path that would allow me to go first, not just because I wanted to “Impress” her in the game, but also because I figured that this “Purification” is vague to the actual function of the machine, I threw myself in the chair because I knew that I wasn’t going to die just like that, I wasn’t sure if my dream visitor was going to protect Lae’Zel so Instead, knowing she would most likely try and protect me, I put myself as the “Test Subject”, I had this same kind of Success with Shadowhearts Shar Trials and I’m super glad I can have genuine “rare” moments in games for myself, even when it feels like I’m so average I’m actually below average.
One thing: my Lae’zel tried the machine and got some of the debuff, annoying but they weren’t her most important stats, but if you want you can absorb the power of the machine through her but it’s much more difficult: a 30 Arcana check… which i got it with advantage and all the inspiration in the world to get the nat 20 I needed just on the last dice XD epic moment
To anyone first playing this game and perusal this article for some reason: Do whatever you want, but if you don’t let articles like this tell you what to do on your playthrough, you could have a better time playing the game. Seriously, you shouldn’t don’t bother with guides, articles about how to do stuff and anything like that. RPGs, specially one that is basically DnD in form of a articlegame, are all about your choices and figuring things out by yourself. I recommend going in blind and saving searching for puzzle solutions and this kind of stuff after you finish the game on your second playthrough.
So you’re saying that, not only did my playthrough’s Lae’zel survive the creche despite my best efforts to let her get herself killed, or give me a reason to make her head part ways with her body without being downright evil about it. But she’s even dafter than she was before now?.. I should’ve ignored that skill check, and watched her explode with a clear conscience.
Brother, i just saw your numbers of subscriibers, congrats on the influx of ppl who realize that you are smart, fun, make interesting observations (with ME dives in mind, oh those are still gold brother) and …i’m going out on a limb here, but you remind me of one off my best friends from what i can tell from your articles. Oh and also, you got charisma, good guy charisma. Take care brother, Solo – Sweden
Risk and reward here. If you let her do it and pass the checks you get the huge approval, and avoid debuffing her, and get the awakened buff. Also, from an RP standpoint, who exactly chooses to get in first? Whether motivated by letting her go first as she wants and/or as she is Githyanki and it is her thing or by not wanting to get into the crazy Githyanki mad scientist’s machine first it doesn’t seem like an option many would take. It would seem to take someone with either simply a massive uncontrolled ego and sense of invincibility or a mix of selflessness yet with a sizable patriarchal streak. Which leads us to: But for those niche personality paths, you have to be metagaming yet simultaneously not up for save scumming to choose to go in the pod.
Fun fact and spoiler: Very early into act 3 Vlaakith confronts the party and commands Lai’zel to kill Orpheus. If you manage to pry into Vlaakith’s mind, among other things you also find out the Zaithsk was never meant to cure anyone from a tadpole, rather its made to kill the host and tadpole so Vlaakith can absorb their essence for her immortality.
I have high approval with Lae’zel but if I try to go first she attacks me and the ghustil helps her, so basically my choice is either kill Lae’zel or permanently cripple her. Either that or I guess I can save scum for the DC 30 checks to convince her to leave (requiring natural 20 even with expertise in the relevant skill), but I try to avoid save scum generally. Pity because I was really trying to focus on her story and her romance this playthrough.
Anyway i killed her afterwards, wouldn’t care that much if she was crippled, she was able to fight still. I don’t think she got much of a debuff for her class, and in my case i got her off the machine very quick, i think in those cases she receives none to only one debuff. Even if she received three debuffs i accept it, not because i was ready to kill her if she betrays me, which she did, but mostly because sometimes you need to accept less power gamewise for the roleplaying benefit. I don’t use cloacks for three reasons: i don’t like the aesthetics of it, they clip in my tiefling character, and i can’t even hide them to get those good stats.
A permanent debuff, especially one as killer as these are, is just a ridiculous punishment and Actively encourages save scumming. Because Of Course we’re going to let Lae’zel get in that thing. She actually Wants to, I certainly didn’t. Either the rolls need to be the same difficulty or the debuff needs to go away. Such a ridiculous way to ruin a pretty cool scene.
I got lost in the dungeon and ended up at the end with the Inquisitor trying to kill me and me having to fight my way through everything only to find out I missed the infirmary, switched Lae’zel out for Astarion and sat in the chair, succeeded on all the saving throws and broke the thing while my tadpole evolved or some shit.
You can get the Awakened buff by getting Lae’zel through all of the checks(and don’t mention the true intention of the Zai’thisk or she will escape) but the ending I got was 2 successes into telling her the truth and she only got a minus 1 in all those stats which I was fine with but might be curable by giving her a tadpole. A net 1 loss of tadpole and you have to convicne a Githyanki to use a Ghaik tadpole but it feels the best imo only after passing all the difficult checks to save her and get the awakened buff(but that’s less useful for tadpolless gaming like I did first run). I didn’t actually give her a tadpole so she still has the debuff and it might not even remove from just one but hey no tadpoles for her they’re all for Gale. However important to note, Lae’zel’s route lets you make checks which yes have higher dc but also have a lot more ways to boost them, notably expertise, and there’s myriad ways to get temporary proficiency in skill checks but very few for saving throws. Advantage is much easier for skill checks too as you get enhance ability at level 3 versus much higher for saving throws. If you are doing this after act 2(make sure it’s before getting the Nightsong since that locks off act 1) and have a level 6 paladin you can technically use aura of protection but just use a bard instead.
Meh, Lae’zel stays at camp to clean up and take care of the rug rat I allowed stay then cooks and cleans our armor for us when we come back from adventuring. I never liked her and booted her from the group as soon as I got Gale. Aside from this mission she doesn’t fight with me. Now Karlach? There’s a bad bitch. Mmmm
Wow…. I’ve been stacking up reasons to restart my campaign… this just sold me. Being able to use all illithid powers as bonus actions is too good a buff. I’m actually kinda relieved I can stop hearing my annoying character’s voice. It sounded good in creation but once I started playing, I just can’t stand it.
Everyone talks about the approval burst but I used my own tav on the machine and I’ll be honest, after having lae’zel with me for almost the entirety of act 1 up to that point and doing things she approved of through choices (accidentally, it wasn’t her I was trying to impress) to the point where she was the first to confess feelings for me, I wasn’t even thinking about all that. Actually, I don’t even remember her being in my party during this scene, I might’ve swapped her out for karlach temporarily
I went into this with 0 inspiration, failed the first 2 checks, but the last one to “absorb its power” or whatever with a 30 DC I got a fucking Nat 20 and succeeded it. Unfortunately it looks like if you fail any of them you get nothing but the debuffs which I think is pretty stupid since I literally succeeded in the one that said absorbing the power. But the last one must be the con debuff because my Lae’zel doesn’t have that one and that’s probably the worst one for her so I guess it isn’t the worst possible outcome.
Not a fan of the Gith, by the first act, you really aren’t left with a great impression of them, save the mentioning of Orpheus by the boy in the training grounds, a tablet you find in the arcane tower about Orpheus, The Doctor(?) in the Hatchery, and eventually in the mountain pass you run into 2 reasonable Gith.
I think they may have changed it. I let Lae’zel do it on my current play, and was able to do an easier wisdom check; which revealed the device to be designed for execution, rather than curing. I was then given an easier persuasion option to tell Lae’zel this; which prompted her to jump from the chair and not get debuffed.
Let me give you a tip…break the door to this room … when the doctor runs away you can just walk out…. also you can steal each tadpole on her table without getting in trouble ……. now that I’ve seen all I can here I just rob them blind ….take the gith egg…and blow the place up permanently
The Creshe is part of Act 1, Act 2 doesn’t start until you enter the Shadow Cursed Lands. The female Teifling that was perusal the patrol at the bridge ends when you speak with her ends up leaving. But is later captured tortured and killed by the Githyanki from the creshe her body can be found in an off room from the entrance corridor. It turns out she went there searching for the Blood of Lathander. In which she was captured and tortured for info on the artifact that she had no info on and then they killed her.
As a note i just found out last night. You can use the Zaithisk after the whole handing over the relic just for them to stab you in the back anyway and the entire creshe becoming hostile. But you will have to fight through all of the members of the creshe to get there. But Lae’zel will not take you going first she will threaten to leave if you insist that you go first. So don’t do what I did. I was fairly lucky that I had after a few cases of save scumbing got a 20 on the roll to convince Lae’zel to get out of the machine to prevent her from getting the terrible debuffs. I think they put in that you can convince her to use the tadpole and consuming tadpoles on her will remove the debuff. But I can’t confirm this. But it’s in the description for the debuffs that I noticed. Also, there is some nice gear and a few good weapons on some of the major members of the creshe. So, when they go hostile it could help you to kill them by hand rather than using the death laser. Also, if you intend to steal the egg. Doing so after the creshe goes hostile it seems Lae’zel doesn’t disapprove about you stealing it and handing it to the woman that asked you to get it.
I went on without visiting the creche used the Astral Tadoole covinced Lae’zel an the rest of the party ShadowHeart Asterion and when the Lich Queen Appeared we entered the Lich Queens mind discovered her secrets passing the information around btween us and Lae ‘Zel rebukees the Queen and decides to free orpheus
Need a hand so I didn’t get laezel at the crash after the the nautiloid she pressed the button and wasn’t on the beach so I thought she was dead and now she’s at the bridge all hostile at the mountain pass at level 5 she’s 12 health I wanna know if I can get her back before I do the bridge with the dragon scene
Pffft, that’s nothing. Also, I thought this will be about a different potential problem with Lae’zel. In Act I when you spot the Githyanki patrol, my Lae’zel just ran to them on her own. When I tried to approach the patrol, they attacked me and wiped floor with me. I assumed she went to creche on her own and I will meet her again once I reach it as well. Only much later when I was higher level and tried to fight the patrol again… I found her dead. So I sadly continue my first playthrough Lae’zelless =/
I respectfully disagree with “don’t do”, that scene emotionally impacted me a lot, brilliant piece of story I mean she literally screams prayers to Vlaakith, how she will be purified and ascend while being permanently brain-damaged. Was is it a good choice? Probably not, but would I do it without hindsight knowledge again? Yes, sure, because of RP. RP-wise, I had no idea about what it would do other than what Lar’zel said to me, and she says it is her right. RP-wise my character met a few Githyanki in his travels, but they are still aliens from Astral Plane to him, and one of them says it is the cure (and they are supposed to know better). So I’ve accepted the consequence of this RP choice, not happy with my choice, but that’s in hindsight only.
I like your articles but I’m finding the last few are a little spoilery when they appear on my YouTube feed. I’d rather discover these things for myself so I choose not to watch the articles but even reading this title (which is unavoidable as it’s a YouTube feed puts the idea in my head that there’s something Lae’zel is going to say that I need to watch out for. I guess some people might find it helpful to know this stuff beforehand so I understand why you have to do it. Personally I’d rather not see it and don’t want to mute your vids for a while unless I have to. Now if you did a spoiler free article or 2 (or some shorts) on funny things you can do, reactivity or the deeper mechanics at play then I’d watch the hell out of those.
No, Lae’zel deserves it for her zealotry and for not listening. The fact this game puts in permanent stat reductions for stuff like this is AMAZING. D&D isn’t really a place for annoying min-maxxers. My Lae’zel is now a little less wise, a little dumber, and a little easier to take down, if she doesn’t stop bowing to her false God of a queen around me. Perfection.
SPOILER FOR ACT 1 AND 2 (But explaining where Act 1 ends and Act 2 begins:) Creche isn’t act 2. Act 1, generally, is split between dealing with the goblin tiefling conflict and then getting to moonrise tower. You only enter Act 2 once you actually enter the shadowlands. Everything before that is Act 1. That said, there are points where progressing through act 2 auto-completes certain earlier quests. Going to the mountain pass where the Creche is (and/or meeting with the Inquisitor) and going to the Grymforge by crossing the river in the Underdark both come with warnings about taking care of loose ends. I don’t know exactly what is pushed forward, though, since I was quite a completionist and very careful in Act 1 not to miss any side quests, and I did the goblin tiefling conflict pretty standardly.
Found out in act 3 that she had some nasty debuffs, which i could not get rid off, maaany hours into my gameplay. At first i was pretty pissed about it, but then i went on playing the game with absolutely no issues at all, and realised i was putting too much importance on the “perfect build, perfect playthrough, perfect choices, perfect whatever….but that’s just not how you enjoy BG3. This beautiful game is made to be played as an unpredictable adventure, with surprises and consequences, so i suppose i needed those debuffs after all, because they taught me this important lesson to just let go and enjoy the moment as it comes, instead of controlling every aspect of it. Haven’t looked back ever since!
Much appreciated, thanks for the info. I wondered why LaeZel is so god damn useless after the creche stuff, now I know why. Just another reason why BG3 will never be a great game to me. It does not matter what someone thinks of LaeZell, but what happened before, and what will happen later, it makes perfect sense to let her go in first… and you are rewarded with extremely high and ridiculous skill checks… which is pretty much typical for BG3 and makes my D&D heart hurt, but that is not the problem. The problem is, the game does not communicate this “perma debuffs” to the player, it is not the first of such hidden “effects” and unfortunately not the last, game wants you to check your char sheets like a detective every few steps just in case something bad happened undocumented. And the alternative, go in first, have lower skill checks, but embrace the illithid darkness. Yah what a great choice. Better to skip that part, the skil check to persuade her to stay with the group is easy enough.
In addition to what has been explained in the article … I think most complains towards evil PCs are not because the character is evil, but because said actions come at the expense of the party and their goals (ruin an elaborated plan, kill/anger an important NPC after managing to get into their good graces or de-escalate a situation, steal the hard-earned magic items from the party during a long rest), if said evil actions were to benefit the party without a true repercussion, then they might question the means but couldn’t deny that said actions bring great results (it’s tricky, but can be done). People don’t hate evil PCs, people just hate rude players.
I’m playing an evil character in a campaign and it’s the most fun I’ve had RPing a character because I’ve had to look at and solve problems from a different angle. The DM seemed worried about me causing trouble in towns by acting evil but he really started to like my character because my character is agreeable most of the time. When I do act evil, it’s calculated, decisive and benefits the party because I do evil to get power and influence. The DM originally planned for us to find a lost bear cub whose mother was being held by Kobolds. He wanted a nice touching mother-cub reunion but I tied the bear cub to a tree outside the kobold base ‘to keep it safe’, convinced the other PCs to knock out the momma bear cuz we didnt know if a wild animal would recognize us as ‘friends’. While everyone was looting the camp I double tapped momma bear and took the cub back to our base and now we have a battle bear. The whole table was shocked but now we’re stronger cuz we have the bear. They didn’t like my methods, but appreciated the power boost. Everyone at the table is wondering what my next big power play is and it’s great.
(Written before perusal) I have played a semi-evil character before! He left a lot of broken hearts, murdered hobos, was boisterous and had a pact with an unalligned demon queen (Wasn’t D&D, but I guess in D&D he would be a warlock as he had a couple of spells and some supernatural boons like insane dexterity, more than the elves, and could shapechange). At night he just went away to have some fun, and the murders only happened when he was away from the group. One time we had to get informations about a warehouse with suspected cultists, my PC split from the group who watched the house to get first hand informations. My PC went into an alley near-by and asked a hobo, gave him a BUNCH of money for the informations and then just stabbed him in the throat before dumping the body somewhere. No one found out about it but I got the informations in minutes while the others wasted hours and learning nothing. He eventually died in combat, I think… not wearing armor and only having a short sword was not the smartest idea I ever had. (Written after perusal) I don’t really like the allignments, they are too strict while most people are more complex. For seperating the character from oneself voice acting might help, just a tiny bit to get into the headspace and for detachment. Not some super gruff voice, slight intonation or accent changes might be enough.
My evil characters tend to take a more Hanibal Lector kind of approach, coaxing others to do evil (like he did to his therapy patients), killing very minor NPC’s that annoy them or that they think the world would be better without like he did with the bad player in the orchestra that he ate. He might also be a bit extra brutal to the party’s enemies that they are killing anyway, they ran a few bandits through but he would cast spare the dying to stablize them then bash there skulls in again just for shits and giggles when nobody was looking. Subtle evil characters are my fave as it takes a bit of roleplay to finesse it, like how long will it take for the others to realize that he is evil and when they do what will they do since he has done nothing but help them and has never hurt them in any way.
For me, the best experience playing an evil character was with my first warlock. Our previous characters died during their last bossfight, implying that our next characters would start at lvl 6 (i feel like this was really important because it gave me the room to write a more complex background than just a simple lvl 1 guy). I really wanted to try an evil character without ruining other player’s experience, so i worked with my DM and came to a really nice conclusion of playing this warlock with separated souls. This was a blast for me, because in his backstory he was straight a serial killer who liked to see life being ripped away from his victims, but his patron got enough of it and decided to make him a goofball that kept joking about everything that happened to the party and would feel bad for even trying to defend himself with violence. His evil side sometimes would come off because of lore stuff and was really fun playing an entirely different character when it happened.
To me its kinda easy to rolplay a evil character, just make the character someone who priorize itself and its important people over the others and dont have that much problems ignoring the “moral” action with a more…”the most important thing are the final result”, “morality and honor dont bring food on the table or pay the taxes” (thats evil in DnD, to me its be a realistic person). After that you just choose if it follow rules (moral/social/or its own rules), ussualy follow them except if it will gain something or have a mentality of “no rules”. In a sense isnt that hard, the standar mercenary/adventurer for money in theory its an evil character, im here to do the mission and gain the money, not to save every damm person in problems
I actually have a Chaotic Evil Star Wars character that I’m quite proud of, since not only can I sometimes play him in a villain role in some specific scenarios with other villain characters, but I can also play him as an “anti-hero” in half of the other scenarios, since he knows killing everyone and everything isn’t beneficial for earning money. That and he has a hobby of collecting pets from across the galaxy of course lol, along with having a sense of loyalty when it comes to those he actually considers friends or comrades.
Nice vid. I’ve been wondering bout this for a while cuz I’ve had a character concept or 2 that invloved them being evil. Maybe not necessarily pure evil or irredeemable. More like they are evil because that’s what they know and understand. Maybe depending on how the story unfolds they grow and change
I am playing a chaotic evil character in a dnd campaign, and I think this article has hit exactly what a good way to play an evil pc is. Another important thing that needs to be done is creating a good motivation to treat the other party members well. My pc is highly manipulative and is kind and helpful to the party, because they are extremely powerful and further his goals. He convinced the lawful-good paladin in the party to help kill a crime-lord and then proceeded to take control of the syndicate.
I will definitely use this. Currently, the way I’m playing my evil character is to start off with a slight distrust towards other PC’s until that very first fight, then I throw in a sense of “we need each other”. This way I keep a sort of “tribe mind” where I am nice to the other PC’s simply because we’re “going through it together”. I try not to physically attack everything for no reason and am especially careful with key characters (not to kill, upset, steal from) since they might tie into other players story in a more significant way than it would for my character. Aside from that, I bully away and act selfish all in the name of a personal agenda.
I and my friends have played evil characters but we had the understanding that we need to work together. We can cheat or mess with the other pc’s but we ate working together not against each other. The only time we have had a problem with another PC was when they were chaotic neutral and didn’t work with the group. Don’t play stupid evil make it work, find common interests that can keep the party together. A strong leader can help to keep the group focused and can deal with some infighting.
I RP as a Lawful evil Black Half Dragon Half Elf Necromancer. The other player in our group is a Silver Dragonborn Lawful Good Paladin. This has caused some interesting dynamics where I had to say out of session I need to fix my character’s personality (I’m big on lore) since Silver and Black Dragons are mortal enemies and we were literally on the opposite ends of the spectrum. What I had to do was find a party member who was more neutral to allow me to do certain things as my character and when my character was being a dick to the paladin, I just apologized and said I wasn’t expecting xyz. Later it was easier as he would go complain at a fireplace or go smoke a pipe when his idea that got turned down for being too evil was the more correct choice. In the mean time during combat he would always try to keep the paladin alive as a way to show he respected the Paladin despite their differences like a rival who understands despites does not like the paladin. He would even say the paladin is correct on some things and kept his code as be a team player triumphs over his end justifies the means. For me its a strong constant mental exercise but is more rewarding and we get some laughs. Especially when Speak with the dead is applied and the Paladin walks right in.
Honestly an easy way to find out if your other players or dm are bad is 1. make a character. 2. Tell everyone your playing a Chaotic Evil character. and last 3. Play the character as good, charitable, kind, giving, and agreeable as possible. If the dm and/or players are looking to be hostile with you regardless you should leave that table. they are looking for any excuse to treat someone poorly and it’s not good (at least not for you) to associate with them.
Im playing an evil character for the first time prior to our upcoming session i made it very clear to the group i will be doing questionable things but i also made it clear if i do something that there character disagrees with for them not to feel bad for attacking me as i do not care if my character dies sooner than i expected, i also ensured my actions will not get in the way of the main goal but i will but it will be quite evident that i am evil aligned
I have an idea on how to play an evil character: They will be using the party to their own ends, but either because they grow to care for the party or because betraying someone who’s proven time and time again to be useful to them is something that they’re smart/honourable enough to avoid doing, they will not betray the party once they have what they want, and will only try to kill the party once they start directly interfering with their plans.
Here is how I usually play evil. Even the most psychopathic monster in cinema has something they love. They need to protect that thing no matter what. They would do anything, to anyone, at any moment to protect that thing. It could be their reputation, or a family member, or a pet, but it is something. For my evil character, that is one or all of the other players. That prevents them from back stabbing the other players for the simple fact that they would absolutely lose that person they are tied to. However, there is nothing stopping the evil character from using methods that would make even the most resolute paladin vomit at the thought of it to keep their friend/s alive. The question you ask at every moment is “what can I do to improve the survival rate and comfort of the people I need in my life” and then ignore the more difficult solutions in favor of the simple, even if it is morally bankrupt thing to do.
another tip is generally having your characters goals allighn with the parties. i played a lawful evil artificer or a oneshot who my gm loved so much he asked if he could bring back my character as a villain. this character although sadistic and cruel had an interesting honor system where if he made a deal he would stick to it. he would have intricate contracts for every single deal he made detailing his and the other parties boundaries. if his partner broke the contract he would outright kill them but if he was the one messed up he might get angry and break an arm but his contracted partner would live. he was sadistic and saw himself as a genius but functioned well as he had no reason to hurt the party and like the party wanted to fulfill the job they were hired for.
I made a character minmaxed for lethality. I wondered what the motivation for the character training so hard to be and, maybe it’s mine? It just wants to kill. That’s pure chaotic evil. but I don’t want to ruin anything the others are doing, so “She is wise enough to know that all she has to do is hang around dangerous people for long enough, and her chance will come soon enough, again and again, to kill.”
In the first campaign i was able to finish. I played as a necromancer, who while helping the party do their quest and defeat the god of death/necromancy. Was using my ability to raise the dead to create lieutenants out of the BBEG’s lieutenants so i could dethrone him and take over the world as the new BBEG of the next campaign. The whole time i was sending dms to the DM(we did our campaigns on discord because all of us were in different states and one of us was in England) about what i was doing and he would tell me what i needed to roll/beat for it to work. We got to the end and my plan worked. Everyone was blindsided and i was able to make my character’s dream a reality. It was honestly pretty cool. And way easier than people think it is. Also in that second campaign i did not play as the necromancer again. Instead i played as a regular character with no ulterior motive or secret goal.
The way I play my Evil master assassin in campaigns is that he is completely selfish but sometimes this aligns with the party, layer the actions and reasoning, I saved a party member from an arrow to the back, a good alignment thing to do, because my character had affection for them however won’t openly say it, its a weakness in the assassins world but also because they are needed for the party and their own plans. The idea is who is true evil the one that kills for fun or the one that would erase your identity so you know your friends and family but they have no clue who you are, so your name will fade into obscurity? Evil like good has its layers, which is why I only use the alignment system as a loose guide. Because we have seen how differently aligned characters can coexist one such game is starcraft 2 Alarak with the rest. Also Tying some actions into your characters religious and cultural beliefs and practices, something seen as barbaric and evil to one is lawful to another
One of my favorite “evil character” moments, murdered someone while using disguise self and actor feat to impersonate the BBEG let the family see me before running away, then recruit the family members help to go after the BBEG. the players all knew what happened but my character kept it secret so in game no one knew. prior to that my PC had only done petty thieving or killed during open combat sessions, so showing my high charisma rogue was actually a sociopath took everyone by surprise.
I agree with a lot of what you said but you have missed out one key thing about playing as a evil character and that is you need to be able to work with your players if you don’t do this you could end up getting kicked from the table even evil characters have friends and love ones the only difference is a evil character views on them is not going to be the same as a good character view on friends and love ones I am playing as a lawful evil Hobgoblin Bladesinger who was a mercenary veteran so her mentality is if you hurt someone in her band you are hurting her she kinda has the mob mindset
I’d love to play an evil or morally very questionable character (a charcter who doesn’t care about hurting others to achieve their goals)! I guess you have to establish rules like: make them want to stay in the party due to common goals, and to not harm party members or ruin quests, because it’s more convenient to my character if they journey together with the player group. However, non-essential npcs could be treated very cruelly if it fit the moment. I guess the key is to talk it out with the DM, make sure players are ok with it, and not ruin the fun of other players. Still, I’m here to learn about anything to avoid
I really liked this article and that you brought up thinking of yourself as a good aligned player, even if your playing an evil character, was great! One of my DMs is running an evil campaign and I think so far everyones done a good job of being vicious in game, but above table we’re all very much chaotic good, even if we didn’t think of it in those terms at the time lol. But taking that approach has also lead to really fun ingame things too. Like we’re evil/selfish characters, but we gave up looting a goblin tower when one of our party members was in critical condition. Our characters first reasoning was: ‘We don’t want to try to find someone else to join us when we already trust this guy and he’s our tank!!’ Which lead to our player characters later realizing: Oh no. I think we all became friends!! Evil friends. But friends!’ And above table as players, we were all worried about our friend losing their character they really enjoyed playing, so we were gonna save him!! And we did! : D
Evil people seek to be perceived as good. This either involves doing good while others are perusal and doing evil while no one is looking or “reputation laundering” by associating themselves with others who do good to get reputation by way of proximity to genuine altruists. I often play a low level evil person who does very little outward evil while acquiring resources and reputation. If the character survives to mid level, I retire him or her, having essentially “seeded” a future villain. The same way that a criminal would case a bank, ideally as a full on employee of said bank, my evil characters only have subtle signs that they are not altruistically motivated. It is more akin to seeding the grounds of a long con. Depending on the GM or players, I will either retire the character prior to their face-heel turn or, with GM permission, expose my villainy and become a villain for the campaign briefly. In either case, I transition to an actual heroic character at that point. IRL, I am the nicest person imaginable so it is very obvious that my villain characters are not self-inserts. Alternatively, my nice guy persona may be a ruse. Beware.
In the current campaign im playing in, im playing a bard who’s secretly a spy for an evil wizard. The wizard is a powerful enchanter who can wipe minds and controls my character through special bracelets that the wizard, at any time can dissipate the magic on, causing my character to lose all of their intelligence and charisma, and plummet back to base (for a kobold) stats. So my character has to do what the wizard says or he will lose his identity!
My favorite Evil Character for D&D is a Chaos Warrior from Warhammer Fantasy. Chaos Warriors are plundering, pillaging and rapping (the second g is silent) Vikings in full plate armor which worship Demon gods. But they can absolutely work in a D&D adventure setting, because what matters most to an individual Chaos Warrior, is honoring their gods. They do that by defeating strong foes in 1on1 Challenges and offer up their triumph is victory. So why would a Chaos Warrior help a merry band of heroes to defeat the Dragon King? Because he wants that things head on spike to carry home. No coin, no altruism, just pure glory seeking ego.
I… play almost exclusively evil characters. My main is a devout Lolth-sworn drow. If evil is defined by a character who prioritizes their own needs over others, how does that make the characters expecting their own needs to always be prioritized not evil? Also, if you as the player need to break character “every few minutes” to remind the table you’re not evil in real life… are the other players all 8 years old? I would highly recommend finding a table of adults who understand the difference between pretend and reality. The key to playing an “evil” character harmoniously is to understand what motives them and how their goals align and differ from the rest of the party’s. I’m playing a drow in party with a cleric of Lathander. Both are motivated by their faith. They find common ground on that. There’s no need to break character. The other players understand what my character’s motives are and he has a vested interest in their continued support, so he prioritizes cooperation. It’s that simple.
The way I did it is play coniving characters and their evil actions usually help the party. Example. I was playing a dark elf assassin who was riding Drizzt’s good name and using his party as a cover so he could steal and kill but have people known for being good back him up on being good. One time we were on a ship fighting a water elemental and I had nothing that could damage it so I went below deck to loot stuff while the party fought. In order to do that I had to clear out where the sailors were hiding so I did a mix of persuading and intimidating to get the sailors in the fight to help the party and to get them out so I could loot the ship. This character would torture, kill, and threaten npcs while the party wasn’t looking but generally avoided being caught and a lot of his actions would benefit the party as a by product so the players didn’t bother looking into things too hard.
Another thing: Don’t be evil every single session, a evil character can go along with the group and seem normal, what you want to do is be selfish in those crucial moments. If you wake up first after every long rest and pour fireants in the other players boots because you are “Evil” then you are just annoying. You are evil when after hundreds of sessions in the critical moment where someone is about to reach their goal you ruin it for them for your own benefit. Your acts of evil against your party should be calculated and done only when necessary or goal defining. While you can be evil to others, don’t be evil to those that the party cares about. Don’t torture the old lady that let you stay in her hut for the night, instead brutally torture the slavers that “deserve it”
Selfish doesn’t mean loveless and your character can grow to like the party and seek do to hide their lack of morality. They might even risk their life because they don’t want to lose anything. Althought to them, a freind dieing or going off to live happlily ever after, but never seeing them again are just as bad. If dark elf, then they could be old and bored, wanting to experance somthing new. They might pretend to be good, but kill anyone who threatens their new fun.
not caring if your character dies next session has nothing to do with separating your personality from your characters. people care about their char dying because of the amount of time invested into that char being lost. not caring about your char’s possible death just means you don’t value your time. you should be valuing your time highly, it’s one of the most precious resources you posses. not caring or attempting to train yourself to become desensitized to losing that resource is tantamount to embracing apathy. this should not be encouraged in any form. please try to rethink this and perhaps rephrase, because the basis your working under is faulty. otherwise decent article, and good quality editing.
Getting someone kicked from the university D&D club because they complained that your running ‘joke’ about being a child killer and a cannibal was making them uncomfortable would be pretty much the exact opposite of this. Getting the quiet guy who barely spoke kicked was not difficult for them since they were a little older than the rest of the club and they made people uncomfortable because they didn’t make eye contact because of their social anxiety and poor social skills. Yes this happened and the player sold their D&D books to a second hand book store a week after this and never played again and was quite upset about D&D after that, this person had poor social skills and social anxiety before this and this made those problems worse… I know you are just going to brush this off as a “yeah, that happened … I believe you honest…” story but I need to say it to help lift the weight of this from my mind.
I’m currently playing an over-the-top Tyrant of the world domination Cleric of Bane Daemos Black Hand in the Mad mage campaing, despite he’s doing the over-the-top villain talk like Lord Bison from the SF series, my take on he’s seeing players as his minions in his conquest of world domination thus he’s not playing nor betraying the party. He’s actually helping them to get back to work by healing them painfully. (Who said that healing wasn’t painless?) (My party thinks he’s crazy but plays along with his crazy megalomaniac delusions.)
Imo A good example for a dnd character who is evil Kagain from Baldur’s Gate. Greedy and selfish, but not going out of the way to be horrifyingly evil and murder hoboish. While apathetic most of the times it’s also shown that he does genuinely have standards and their are even acts that he wouldn’t do (which could be used to justify an evil character sticking around with a group if they aren’t doing it out of friendship).
Currently attempting a difficult evil char idea with high level PCs and incredible magic items. Everything is hinging on this group of individuals to sace the world from several different threats. One of which is a cursed personality sickness known as “The wack”. A disease that travels to highest authority of civilization and eliminates thousands of lives in the process. Also known by me to being the god of insanity. My wizard contracted the wack while he touched a cursed book splitting his mind and fracturing it leaving him with a personality mesh. He has home brew rules for swapping personalities. I made backstory for each one and names so my players can identify who is out based on how i act. The wack and my wizard have constant battles in hisnhead for control. And though my char is really strong the party didnt exactly help much in his fight against this wack. So at rhis point the wacl is winning
I would be upset if my character dies because I want to keep playing that character. I signed up for a campaign in which I am that character, not a backup character that gets rotated in if I die. If there’s resurrection options available or if I do something incredibly stupid and totally deserve the character death, then that changes things. Can’t blame the DM for my stupidity. But if I lose a character and it’s not my fault, I’m out. That table is dead to me. Also, I have absolutely no interest in playing a character that is evil by the definition that was given near the start of the article, or anything close to that. That sounds incredibly unfun to me.
Ivr actuslly never been able to play good characters and its always a blast when i play at tables in 1 shots I usually end up desecrating graves/urns of ashes when i can or just letting my fellow players go willingfully into traps or just being the slap stick humor of the table I also end up either killing myself at the end of the 1 shots either by doing something completely stupid like once as a cleric, i got into a grave and fireballed the coffin i was in… Or once as a pirate barbarian i tried intimidating everyone in the party to do what i wanted but ended up failing every roll and ended up loosing my role on the ship as captain, that was fucking awesome. Or this other time where i have a selfish monk character who would show off by doing backflips and shit to get over puzzles or just normal gates only for other people to do the same thing and fail miserably and me just talk about how they have to do better next time😂 Its all just for fun and i usually end up being for the party but i also dont save the party aswell, im only in it for the gold of course. Im going to try and make a good paladin tonight who is good and try to be good because rn my intrusive thoughts win every god damn time.
I actually play D&D in a club at my school and I always play a fighter and my current D&D character would be having an entire sub story with the villains right now if I wasn’t told by the people who run it that I would be a dick and my character would instantly be sent to the 9th circle of hell if I betrayed my party despite that being completely in character. My current one f**** evil and he knows it. I also have a backup character who is basically the good the their evil and is probably the only one of all are characters who can go toe to toe with my current character.
I made an evil PC, and I partly tried to plan with another player and the dm to have there be a climatic final battle with HER as the BBEG, with her losing. her motives were simple desire to survive, since she was already a 30y/o goblin she already reached the halfway point of her life and was desperately seeking to extend her life and protect her life at expense of any other. the campaign ended ubruptly with a “and you all end up in a tavern and go seperate ways” cause it was the last time we would all be able to play dnd together. so it was agreed that she just won and became capable of endless life and thats it gg.
I think this is a really shallow approach to playing evil, and honestly it sounds like taking advantage of your friends’ opinion of you is your advice in order to settle their issues with your character. Evil-aligned characters don’t have to be jerks at all like you’re narrating them. Also, I put quite a bit of storytelling effort into each of my characters, so if they suddenly die in an unfitting situation, I would obviously be upset, but if there was resolution in their death, I think I could live with it.
If you want to play an evil character just don’t be hostile towards your companions they are helping you fight why would you want to be antagonizing them. And be mindful of what boundaries you shouldn’t cross in the story you are trying to make it will most definitively make people uncomfortable at the table and get you kicked out if you cross them.
This is a ridiculous supposition. 😡 You can’t boil down the comparisons between good & evil in such a way. You’re really trying to open up the door for players to feel enticed into playing evil characters. This is just my opinion but there should never be evil-aligned characters at the table AT ANY TIME. The 2ndary goal for any good DM is to create a world were the characters can become heroic doing good things. 1st goal being/having fun at the game. D&D should be an escape for people that encourages people to be good in a dark-forboding, evil world, where at any time a kid armed with an AK-47 can walk into a school in Texas firing at will, killing any kid he sees. We as a society have enuff problems without allowing someone to play evil characters in a game that was meant to be good triumphing over evil. Do you see where I’m going with this? Anyone who allows kids (even adults) to play evil characters in any role-playing game is contributing to the problems we have in society. If you have a problem with my opinion, tough sh_t.