The Drow Cleric, Yemi’serra, in my semi-regular game is a psycho. The character is really, really cool, but still a psychotic murderhobo.
She is a Cleric of the Unknown God, the god of Secrets and Power. She traded a powerful secret with it (in lack of better term) for the power to bend divine power to her will. The god snatched the secret from her memory and bestowed power upon her. This is why she can cast spells while regular priests cannot.
She’s outright and horribly unscrupulous however, and it is fantastic. While travelling to the Pyramid of Zelos, an abandoned temple to a largely forgotten god of the Sun and Fire (named Zelos of course), they encountered a group of Bullywugs in the swamps around the temple, twelve of them.
As the Lizardman Fighter, Gizh, rolled 10+ on his Scouting roll while they were undertaking a perilous journey, they got the drop on them. They decided to kill ’em off as they are natural enemies to the lizardmen, who by the way eats the bullywugs when they can catch them.
The fighter dons his magical boots of I can produce no sound whatsoever (yes, he has those… he can’t even speak when they are worn), and the High Elven Wizard, Javanarell, proceeds to make him invisible. They set up the ambush, and after the initial surprise attack, they proceeded to kill six of the twelve bullywugs before they even had a chance to act. The rest starts running for their lives, but only three of them makes it away alive.
One was left behind though, as Javanarell wounded it with his bow. Yemi’serra had already donned her Reaper Gauntlets, which can “catch” the souls of sentient creatures when they die and release them to heal herself 1d4 hp. They were a gift from the god of Death and the Harvest.
She looks at the remaining struggling bullywug for a while, then suddenly tears out its throat. Everyone watches this brutality with a slight feeling of discomfort. They know what the gauntlets does, so they weren’t surprised when they saw the gauntlets absorb the soul.
So, this was of course unnecessarily brutal, or at least everyone thought it. It would have been more palatable if they had just stabbed it. But ho ho ho, it didn’t stop there. Immediately after she yanked a roaming spirit out of oblivion and thrust it into the body while cackling something along the lines of “I compel you to seeerve!”
The body animates and rises yet again, its wound almost gone and with a blank stare in its eyes. By then, everyone around the table was freaking out and had no idea about how to react. Even the hirelings were mortified but dared not say anything.
The main “problem” is now that Yemi’serra has three mechanical incentives to murder first and ask questions later: She can suck out their souls to heal herself later, she can ask them three questions with speak to the dead with the promise that they can’t lie, and she gets a minion.
Now the player told me that she wants to become a lich.
Oh, party woes…
This session was awesome.
In case people are wondering, she’s evil by alignment. Or at least hypocritically self-serving.
The great thing is that her god just doesn’t give a flying ****. It is the god of power, and if you have the power to do something and no one can stop you or punish you for it, then it is your right to do so.
She works remarkably well with the party however, contrary to my experience with “evil” characters, because while she is self-serving first, she recognizes the other members skill and expertise and frankly considers them irreplaceable.
They are also her friends and allies, and that means something to her. There’s really no problem party-wise, she’s just an asshole 😀
But so is the wizard by the way. He’s just much more charming, and that has far less severe consequences than being abusive, oppressive and extorting people.
I love this party.
nice
Sounds like a great player as well, bringing the character to life that way.
I ran a game of evil PCs in a DW 1-shot once. The most fun was had by the Anti-Paladin. There was no healer in the party. The Anti-Paladin’s touch caused damage to living beings, but on a 10+ it also healed him. After every combat he tended to still have some damage, so he would chase down stray dogs and cats in the city slums and use his touch, hoping to roll 10+ to heal too! At random times I’d tell him that he’s spotted a cat or dog in an alley, lounging on a windowsill, etc. The party would see the Anti-Paladin dash off in a direction, hear a cat’s yowl or dog’s yip, and then see a healthier paladin emerge again, and they weren’t sure if he was a vampire or what! One time I said “you see a young orphan child down that alley…” and wondered if he’d take the bait, but he wasn’t THAT evil, he said.