How do you play an evil Drow Bard, Veeky Forums? Another person in my party just told us he's bringing one to the table...

How do you play an evil Drow Bard, Veeky Forums? Another person in my party just told us he's bringing one to the table, and I can't wrap my head around it.

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Her art, apparently.

What I would do is ask the DM if I could have an electric-enchanted guitar, then center the bard in question around black metal.

Evil what? Lawful, Chaotic or Neutral?

I assume is going to be a very narcissistic and selfish person if is an evil bard and won't hold a breath to get the fuck out if things get ugly.

Chaotic Evil. We have a paladin in the party, but she's going to be lowkey evil, pretending to be TN and throwing her ~18-19 charisma at anyone who cares. But I just don't see how an Evil Drow Bard would work...

Why does this perplex you? The only difference between my bard and an evil one is really the motivations and goals. I use manipulation and intimidation to help those who need it... Change what I'm after and suddenly evil.

I cowed an entire crowd of people into submission through illusions and carefully chosen words. It was to stop a lynching. I could just as easily had other aims at that point.

She better have some spell to conceal her alignment because Paladin can detect bullshit in a blink of an eye.

Like I said she is trying to build her power enough to get recognition in her Drow society and probably will lure the other party member into a trap in a way where she can submit everyone to be her slaves like any good Drow would do.

Well, most Drow are Chaotic Evil by default. Its also not that difficult to get tagged Evil in D&D. She could easily be some sort of assassin with little qualms about who she works for and that would qualify.

Chaotic Evil in a party with a paladin might be tricky though, especially if you're in an edition where they can detect evil.

She can pretend not to be evil all day but the paladin is going to ping her sooner or later (probably sooner). If he's the redemption kind, she has to fake natural goodness in her shining through. Have her shove food in a begger boy's face to get him away instead of hitting him, angrily complain when you (rarely) go out of your way to help people. Confide in him you're scared of trying to be good because you are afraid you're not able too. Roleplay having high CHA.

>How do you play an evil Drow Bard, Veeky Forums?
Some slutty rock artist that literally corrupts the innocent with her songs? Using the power of suggestions, she turns peaceful hamlets into lethal moshpits during what she describes as her "tour".

You're joking right? I hope your joking.

>That
>Edgy
user...

Detect Alignment isn't passive and only murder hobo Paladins throw it at literally everything so they have an excuse.

I mean, it doesn't change the fact that what OP is describing is an edgy asshole trying to fuck the group dynamic on purpose. Or to use the proper term: That Guy.

Do you cut yourself on basketballs, because that wasn't anywhere close to edgy, and even if it was, it sounded like a fun kind of edgy.

Like original Dante was a fun kind of edgy, as opposed to Donte who is tryhard edgy.

If the music-with-rocks-in and moshpit idea seems out of place to you in medieval fantasy imagine it with like, inciting riots or rebellion. A supernaturally persuasive song about how the local Baron is a smug shit? A song about sex that's just hot enough to tip the most frustrated dude in the crowd over into rape city? A battle hymn that buffs all the listeners with blood lust, which is awful cause you're performing in a pub? This shit is easy

For what it's worth, the party already has a Chaotic Evil Tiefling and the game's going just fine. She just keeps it to herself, and doesn't do anything bad around the party.

He's almost certainly just playing out a fetish anyway, so the how is irrelevant.

An evil Lady Gaga.

What part of 'manipulative, amoral socialite' do you not get?

>as opposed to Donte who is tryhard edgy
Donté however is pretty okay.
youtube.com/watch?v=TPKHxbOg19s

Unrelated question because I think this is a Drow thread and I don't want to make my own thread: The 3.5 game I'm joining is partially set in the Underdark, should I get a riding horse? I have a chest full of stuff, can I put that on the riding horse? If I don't get a horse, how should I transport the chest?

Like this

>Evil
>Female

Yeah, must be a fetish.

Neo-Puritans are the worst.

Brutal Legend please. This isn't SenZar.

Artist?

metal bard would suit this perfectly. you can justify the electric guitar as being a "magic guitar".

if its a dude stuff like this
youtube.com/watch?v=a247R3mNs5A

if its a girl stuff like this
youtube.com/watch?v=n9AcG0glVu4

Actually, it was the drow part that got me. I'd have more faith in it NOT being a ferish if it wasn't D&D.
Not to say D&D is bad or other games don't have fetishes, but D&D IS the most widely played and most popular sort of tabletop P&P game and thus casts the widest net.
And just as large fishing nets have to clean out shitloads of useless garbage to get to the fish worth using, most players are going to be pretty rough initially and on occasion not even worth the time it would take to fit them, akin to polishing and cutting down a previous gem over and over again to get the impurities and flaws out of it until it's good and ending up with a diamond the size of an ant turd for your months of hard work.

I'm not by any means HAPPY about it, but I'm so rarely proven wrong on this point that it's a little depressing.

Just act like Kanye West. Incredible amounts of narcissism and uncaring.

I think I never met a non murder hobo paladin, they all get their dicks hard when they have to smite evil.

have you considered not being a virgin and just having fun?

In addition, tabletop gaming tends to attract social outcasts who often come with a plethora of issues that very frequently they have no way to discuss or work through because in general our society has little interest in helping or supporting people who aren't already decently functional.

These issues, which depressingly frequently center around sex, tend to get played out in the only social outlet many have, namely D&D.

A fairly weak response considering that what I was talking about is rather specifically about how sexual issues tend to get worked out in RPing escapist fantasies, often to the strong discomfort of the rest of the group.

All I can say is "I hope I'm wrong" and he's just playing an evil female drow Bard.

>depressingly frequently center around sex

Why is THAT the depressing part specifically?

Pied Piper, basically.
Uses songs to control people, swindle targets, and spread lies to sew confusion.

Yeah honestly unless a person is playing a male human fighter they're fucking disgusting perverts.

"Ayy yo Marcille I'm real happy for you and amma let you finish but Deedlit is the cutest elf of all time! OF ALL TIME!"

It's not the sex stuff itself that's bad by any means, it's just sad that sexual issues crop up so often with so many people and in many cases nobody is equipped to deal with it because of fairly culturally conservative attitudes.
I know some pretty unfortunate kids from back in high school that basically have ruined their lives because they didn't get help over a variety of sexual issues because there WAS no help to be had and their parents basically just told them that they should ignore it and pretend like it doesn't exist or some shit like that.

It's definitely one of those things that can easily turn inward on itself and fester and get ugly, and it makes me sad to see it affect otherwise decent people who basically were just never given a way to deal with it.

>A fairly weak response considering that what I was talking about is rather specifically about how sexual issues tend to get worked out in RPing escapist fantasies
so yea, stop being a virgin?

The Evil character is in the party for some reason that benefits them and aligns with the party's goals.

If the reason does not align with the party's goals the character will be unceremoniously dumped from the party at the earliest opportunity. Evil characters can work, but to a fault I have never, ever, seen the Evil alignment used as anything more than an excuse to be an asshole.

Well if you think that will solve your problems go right ahead.

In THEORY you could find someone who could do it, but it sort of requires a very long-term group I think so that everyone is on board and everyone understands what's going on, none of this "superise, I'm playing an evil asshole" stuff.

There's always the guy or girl who wants to play a self-sabotaging dick like Belkar from Order of the Stick because they think that's funny, but a lot of the time I don't think they realize that the archetype only really works in the story format rather then an actual play format.

Instead of seducing barmaids, he enchants/drugs and rapes them

They play nothing but McArthur Park, Justin Bieber, and Miley Cyrus songs.

yeah im gonna need some sauce.

I could see an evil bard that uses seduction enhanced with (maybe a Suggestion spell if that nun really won't put out) who takes them to bed and does some light BDSM and mostly gets off on the power she has over them. Or, alternatively, spends the entire night rolling both Intimidate and Seduction.

>Make everything I do, did, or intend sound glorious
>Make everything my enemies do, did, or intend sound terrible
>Make all the bitches fall for me so I always have some form of "True Love" or "Blood Relation" to sacrifice in dark rituals.
>Always have multiple exit strategy
>Always wear a mask
>Never by into your own hype

It's all about long term investments

You first.

One of the War of The Spider Queen books actually talks about the drow bardic tradition. I think they were called the college of whispers or something like that. They're less entertainers and storytellers, and more information brokers, spies, and assassins. If you want, I could crack open my old books see if I can find something more specific for you.

She's already evil m8

Well depends. If they're clever, they'll find a way to make their evil the 'manipulative' kind. An idiot will go for the route of stabbing someone, whereas a clever villain (which is more fitting for a Bard, I would think) would get others to to their dirty work.

When I played an evil Drow rogue, I went the diplomatic route, and used stuff to hide my alignment and then played racial politics to make people question whether I was actually evil or if they were just being racist. I also spoke in a thick Russian accent and tricked the Paladin (who played along as a fool who wanted JUSTICE) into doing most of my dirty work.

If they do something similar, you could be in for some good times, OP.

>See a drow
>Detect evil because its a fucking drow but she might not be evil
>Seems this isn't Drizzt's transgender cousin. DEUS VULT

Yeaaaaaa

>How do you play an evil Drow Bard
Drizzt with a guitar

I would honestly enjoy Drow if not for their spidershit and lolrandumb backstabbery.

>Elves that have had to adapt to extremely murderous conditions in subterranean habitat
>Have become extremely hard to kill in the process and are twice as likely to have violent outbursts when put under stress, making them more beastial than their "sophisticated" topworlder elf cousins
>Have to rely on tribal families and coalitions to survive but do not have the resources to go on grand conquests, so there's no pacyfing and uniting the clans and "houses"
>Their infrastructure is fairly underdeveloped because of this, save a few larger families that have managed to take over a dwarfhold or some shit
>Craftsmanship still capable of making high-quality equipment, although reserved for people of status and only possible in more stable family holds
>Warriors of all kinds flock to witches and noble ladies for guidance and to court them in order to be chosen as their mate and father children of a higher caste.
[spoiler ]>Smoking hot delicious chocolate and blackberry waifus, depending on if you ask japbros or westfriends.

What I'm trying to say is I want book-Tolkien orcs/uruk-hai but not as shit.

Even mythologically speaking, a Drow/Trow is a mixture between Trolls and Fae in scottish folklore. Bring up the "monster"aspects of trolls more in Drow and I will literally play nothing else for the rest of my days.

Then fucking wait for the player to show up with character and start taking notes how it's played, you dumb fuck.
Jesus Christ, the other person didn't even start playing and you are already triggered, because something is beyond your imagination. Then I suggest changing hobby if "evil drow bard" is beyond your mental capacity.

>Evil, manipulative bitch that uses her charms to get what she wants
Here, took me literally 5 seconds to imagine and write down such character.
Are you dense or something?

yes please

Deus Vult brother!

>male
Serial impregnator, using magic to induce compatibility with anything.
>female
Cruel dominatrix permavirgin who never puts out just out of spite.

Callous, spiteful seductress that likes to write songs in which she mocks people, but has Persuasion so high they can't stop praising her for insulting them.

Songs are just the source of his power, maybe he even has a powerful curse that requires him to sing. Beyond that he's just a wicked cunt. There's various kinds of evil contractors in Darker than Black like this.

If we go by what OP said, they're trying to at least find a way to gel with the party.

That Guy is usually refined by their sheer thoughtlessness, and as such never even consider why bringing hat mccullough to the table isn't a particularly good idea.

Continuous Death Metal Woodstock

im not sure i follow, are you suggesting bards aren't evil by definition?

>spidershit
it's an aesthetic and tied to their patron goddess. It's also easily replaceable.
Picking an animal totem to be culturally important isn't unrealistic. But if you don't like, as said, easily replaceable.

>lolrandumb backstabbery.
how bad this is depends a lot on the writers.

The best I've seen typically have it being instigated from the unreachable unhigh figures. Backstabbing is forgiven or rewarded, so long as it's not against the topmost figure.
And keep the randomness out of it, or if it is random have the random backstaber get fucked over by it.
People backstab because they are either manipulating or being manipulated, typically both.

Not the original user, but the amount of scheming and backstabbing of drows make them too disfunctional for my taste as a society. That's literally their only drawback in my eyes, but it cancels all their good sides.

Google image search gives me nothing. Sauce plz.

I'm sorry, user, but I don't know either.

To me that description would more accurately reflect a villain that the party needs to defeat/overcome and presents all kinds of wonderful non-combat encounters to properly resolve.

So the character is "weird," which is already most likely true by virtue of being a drow in the culture and world xhe will be traveling. Making the character a "weird" drow seems superfluous, but sure you could do it. To what end, though?

This describes a bard, yes.

Always this.

This is good.

Professional dom(me)s—and what is a bard if not a consummate professional at whatever they choose to be?—don't put out as part of their services, unless it's porn. Think less of a pornstar with a whip and more of a drill sergeant in a ([{ glamoured} mithral] chainmail) bikini, or an ice queen in an evening gown or fantasy-slutweave powersuit (or whatever costrume is most appropriate for the situation): someone who commands and seduces—sexually or otherwise—by force of personality. Think of the way 90s-era fantasy Vampires were portrayed in such works as Interview with the Vampire, or the Camarilla-aligned clans in Vampire: The Masquerade: charismatic, powerful, domineering—and completely uninterested in sex while simultaneously exuding sexual attraction.

Ultimately this is probably the best advice given so far. Have that character think and act like Cersei Lannister or Claire Underwood. Invest in and actively groom contacts, friends, and influence that are all ultimately expendable. Present as pleasant or as formidable an appearance as is necessary and appropriate for a given social encounter—and if these are few and far between like in most campaigns, this character will not only dominate them but also select and set the tone of them. Never seem an outsider to the situation, but an elite and informed insider. And drop the facade only in a moment of betrayal.

Quoting myself.

If you're unfamiliar with the series (I pick them because they're currently relevant, but some people haven't seen them), here's a couple of scenes to give you the idea of "amoral, manipulative socialite" done fairly well.

GoT: Church and State
youtube.com/watch?v=mUJBTaAyEXE

GoT: Power is Power
youtube.com/watch?v=ab6GyR_5N6c

HoC: Maternity Insurance
youtube.com/watch?v=sag2f6CYWkU

In all three of these scenes, note that the villain does not lift a finger to do anything herself. Your party's bard will not be a villain, but will (try to build and) use this level of influence. Make no mistake: ever since 3.0, the Bard has been the most powerful class in the game when done right and with a GM who is either permissive or willing to follow the RAW; only with a GM who goes out of the way to limit the RAW powers of the class is the properly-social bard not a fearsome thing.

An evil one will make your game .. interesting.

Which mount (or other means of transport) you choose is a matter of preference, setting, and utility.

Preference is simple enough. Do you like X more than Y, or would you prefer a Z, or perhaps an X-Y hybrid with spikes that runs on the souls of murdered children? Whatever your cosmetic desires, there's likely a splatbook that introduces a creature to cover it.

Setting and utility are more important, because these concern not only the availability and propriety of a given mount but also the useful or necessary qualities for same. Do you have contact with the Drow, or the Deurgar, or some other subterranean race such that you can purchase one of their favoured things? If so, then you might purchase a riding lizard, a tame spider, a (dire) bat, or a litter and a dozen eunuchs to carry it and serve you grapes. Will your adventures likely take you into areas where you (and your mount) need non-magical darkvision for navigation? Climb or fly speeds?
Burrowing or swimming? Heat resistance? Are there natural hazards which require that your mount be particularly tough, disease- or poison-resistant, or something else? Questions like these should determine your choices.

If you're just looking for a series of thematically-appropriate underdark mounts, then literally typing underdark mounts into Google gives you a bunch of resources.

Darn.

It looks like something from Drowtales

Lunareth
lunareth.tumblr.com/

seductress. assassin could work. shit like that. better to multiclass into ranger or rogue for more staying power.

I've been playing a NE bard in a Good party for nearly three years now. Never had any major problems with any other party members because my character sees the value in maintaining his masquerade. It doesn't matter if you secretly hate half their guts as long as your continued cooperation keeps making you richer than you'd ever dreamed.
Of course the DM keeps having all NPCs assume the absolute worst about my character, completely disregarding that in the eye of the public he has done more good than the rest of the party combined.

Solution: do not play with an adversarial GM.

No gaming is better than bad gaming.

>tfw basically turning the campaign into the Rock Cocks

Maybe a fantasy version of George R.R. Martin that will not only kill your favorite character, but shank you as well.

>Fantasy version of George R.R Martin

We talkin' as famous as ole' Georgie boy? Because you could threaten to kill the lich's favorite character in your bestselling series "A throne of Games' and probably get him to back the fuck off at that level of control.

The lich laughs at your threats, safe in the knowledge that you are such a lazy fuck that you would never publish the rest of the books.

Roll for initiative.

It's like the player saying they want to be a North Korean rock star. I wouldn't know what the hell to expect either for better or worse

Rolled 3 (1d20)

I prepare to use my full action to write a manuscript and my free action to call my agent.

That's easy enough. Horrible at her music but not above using paralytic toxins to acquire a captive audience. It's okay, the toxin wears off eventually, a few hours after it stops the muscles in the heart.

He is really not happy about those figures coming back in from the Warcraft movie.

Like a slav singing about "the old country" and how terrible it is.

Late but looks like TheTenk. Considering the guy, probably someone's SFW commission.

...

Evil bard seems more of the issue than Evil Drow Bard.

Probably should be played off as a broker of secrets with high social skills and a few levels in rogue or assassin to brew dangerous poisons. Whatever instruments they use should conceal knives or secret compartments with poisons. Mind control effects would probably be their specialty. Probably knows more than a few torture techniques.

As for the motivation for traveling with a party, not sure. As for keeping the paladin from SMITING them utterly, play some angle in regards to her information brokering. Maybe the drow knows lots of things of particular interest to the party or the paladin in particular. Or can infiltrate somewhere they cannot seemlessly.

>Pack loyality being more important than own set of believes
I fucking hate this. Not just in RPG, but in all sort of media around.
When was the last time you saw characters who had their own principles, own views on something or own desires? For more than past decade, all characters in fiction just follow pack loyality, so a bunch of people that don't share ANYTHING but being in the same group somehow turns them into cooperative bunch that don't care about their own agenda or personal stance, because group makes might, and might is right.
Worst offender and biggest example recently - Walking Dead and everything that tries to copy it. What those people share, aside literally being around?

Same applies to TTRPG. I might been just influenced by playing Paranoia as my first system and thus being biased to this type of situations, but I never understood the decision to put together a group of characters that not only don't share anything, but are openly pursuing completely different goals, agenda and set of believes, yet work together as if nothing happend.

Players get attached to characters. Granted it might be frustrating, but the goal is to make the story engaging and fun even if you have to sweep or forget the logical cohesiveness of the group. Actually a lot can be sacrificed to get your players invested and that is the point.

I've played in a group before that everyone had a few "backup" characters ready at all times in case the one you were playing died or fucked off for whatever reason. But that was decidedly the exception to most I have been with.

>Granted it might be frustrating, but the goal is to make the story engaging and fun even if you have to sweep or forget the logical cohesiveness of the group.
And than can be perfectly achieved without the group members suddenly forgetting about their different stances and personality traits. Go try Paranoia. It's ALL about doing different things within group and openly backstab everyone around.
You don't need to "averageise" your team so everyone fits the same mold or neglects own agenda. And without going into killing spree, too.

But making entire group of characters that by no means shouldn't even get in touch with each other and then playing them as tightly-knitted outfit - sorry, that's just lazy or neglected RP

>But making entire group of characters that by no means shouldn't even get in touch with each other and then playing them as tightly-knitted outfit - sorry, that's just lazy or neglected RP

Like I said, you do what it takes for the group to have fun, because that really is the point of the game. For you, it obviously doesn't. It always depends on the group.

>If you don't make your group homogenous, then you don't like fun
Not even him, but son, start playing with someone else than just your friends and people you know for years

Really? I think you're lying, OP. I think you're baiting with evil and drow PCs.

I'm actually Lawful Evil. Important distinction.

Not to a paladin.

Either I'll persuade the Paladin with my high CHA and establish a tenuous truce, have to fight the Paladin, or the Paladin is forced to leave, unable to cope with the moral dilemma of adventuring with an evil-aligned individual.

Either way, little changes for me, though I would like to see the Paladin player having fun and being with the party. They've been on 'leave' for the past few weeks because they ICly refused to undertake a quest for a Red Dragon, because the beast is Evil.

>sorry, that's just lazy or neglected RP
It's fine mate, the twist was that all the party members were brainwashed into becoming an elite tightly-knit special forces squad by a wizard who dispatched them to fuck over another wizard (the BBEG) because the second wizard insulted the first wizard's taste in stained-glass windows.

>All settings are magical realms with brainwashing and hypno fetish all over the place

How much does a DETECT EVIL-dodging magical item cost?

>But I just don't see how an Evil Drow Bard would work...

There's a Chaotic Evil Bard in Pathfinder named Belende the Showy, she's the owner of the greatest brothel in Kalsgard, a city of over 100k.

How is she portrayed? She's passionate, seductive, charismatic, and utterly ruthless in the pursuit of eliminating competition while increasing her profits.

That's what a Chaotic Evil Bard should be, a woman that has zero morals or ethics stopping her from pursuing the thing she craves; now, do remember that just because she has no morals or ethics doesn't mean she lacks *logic* and *rational thought*, if she can't get away with doing something than she won't.

But if she can, and everyone knows it was her? Fuck their opinions, she got what she wanted.