How do I write a good Chaotic Evil character?

How do I write a good Chaotic Evil character?

Write Lawful Evil character, have them occasionally do something pointless and petty.

the important thing to understand about chaotic evil is that it's classically written as stupid evil. the goblins that mindlessly attack villages despite getting stomped by any starter party is pretty stupid.
if you want your chaotic evil to be 'good', it's as simple as having them understand their limits and acting within them, viciously. if they know they can get away with something with no repercussions and it benefits them, they're going to do it.

Raoh

Not exactly Veeky Forums related as it is to the pic, but something struck me as odd about this pic, and the game he's from (Shin Megami Tensei)

In this pic, Takeshi is wielding both an SMG and a shotgun at the same time. However, this is impossible in-game: you can only equip one gun and one melee weapon at a time. In for pic to be possible in-game would essentially break the very rules of the game to make them overpowered.

Which is EXACTLY something Takeshi would do. He wants to be as powerful and badass as he can possibly be, and then some.

TLDR: You fell for one of the classic blunders

OP's pic is a classic example of a Chaotic Evil character.

Just a guy who got bullied and is going to shoot up school.

That's just how a world of STR works.

Just play a character that tries to do the good thing in the easiest way possible that nets him or her the biggest benefit.

Lich is creating an army of the undead right under the nose of the local nobility? Nobility too dumb and stubborn to believe this is happening on their land?

Just fuckin dump a fuckload of magical powder in the castle's gunpowder storage, and light it on fire.

The castle explodes, the kings men will come to investigate, and they surely will discover the lich's army and stop it.

Mission successful. Of course, you just killed around 2408 innocent people in blowing up the castle and you've exterminated an entire noble house.

On the bright side, no one knows you emptied the castle's treasury into your pocket, because everyone is dead. Also, the lich is destroyed and mankind can live in freedom.

you can honestly go as 'edgy' as you want without worrying as long as you go in knowing you don't intend the character to be good. If you are a sane person, you would hate and fear any person you knew to actually fit the description of 'chaotic evil'. Know that you are setting out to write a bad person, and if you succeed you will react to them as such. If you don't reach that point, you've written something you consider less than evil.

With a combination of obsession, selfishness, and disregarding the sanctity of life.

In my opinion, the difference between Chaotic Good and Chaotic Evil is about the importance put on personal gain and harm to innocent bystanders.

A Chaotic Evil person will always try to maximize personal gain at the cost of innocent lives.

A Chaotic Good person will always try minimize innocent lives at the cost of personal gain.

...

Chaotic doesn't mean random in behavior, Chaotic means individualistic.

honestly that may have been Lawful evil, inasmuch as its Evil that seeks to legitimize itself within the bounds of moral expectations. Chaotic good might have forced the compliance of the uncooperative despite their vested authority, countermanding law to achieve good, but the given scenario is just finding a way to excuse a crime with semi-coherent justification.

Pretty much write him like pic related

Yeah, you are right. My mistake.

Give him goals besides hurting people for the lulz, be they destroying a government or devaluing a currency or just freeing the CE higher power that gave him powers from some kind of imprisonment.

You'd be right if the character in
bothered to legitimize himself or herself. Let's just imagine the character was in a party filled with true neutral characters that just wanted the lich defeated and that they were sure the explosion couldn't be traced back to them.

>like pic related
>loses his demonic gf to the hero and sulks around
>tries to use the demon ring for himself to challenge the top angel guy
>gets vaporized

Man, his life was always shit.

Well, being Chaotic Evil isn't a recipe for a good life.

Because really, no one needs you. Lawful Evil is more reliable, and Chaotic Neutral is more inclined to cooperate.

A proper Chaotic Evil character has no exit strategy. The only way their story can end is with an alignment shift, or death.

Here's an example of chaotic evil done good

Good example. Especially the part where he finally loses control of his power, and suddenly remembers and calls for his friend.

well the character in that scenario just looted and blew up the local lord's castle, apparently on the justification that doing so would bring the king's investigators to solve the litch problem as a byproduct of investigating the destruction of the castle. This is described as "trying to do the good thing in the easiest way possible", so its being set up as the pragmatic, common sense solution, when in fact its just evil

Sarevok is a better example. He's calm, intelligent, plans ahead, but still ultimately chaotic.

Don't play thinking you're the main character, the chaotic evil guy cannot typically be the face of the party.
Find a reason you're with the party and stick to that reason. You can be chaotic evil and still be loyal to your party.

>A proper Chaotic Evil character has no exit strategy
>Chaotic Evil means Chaotic Stupid
> Chaotic Evil means you have no sense of self preservation
Off yourself.

You can play a Chaotic Evil character with a sense of self preservation, but the archetypical Chaotic Evil characters from fiction have no concept of long term self preservation.

you're right. One in twenty can pull it together after the fact.

Luca Brasi from the Godfather. Chaotic Evil (hacks a guy up with an ax on a job, beats women, has a midwife toss his newborn son into a furnace, etc), described as the kind of person who looked for death yet fought it to the point where people weren't able to kill him without getting him to drop his guard and also ganging up on him.
Wild, vicious, angry, but he still held a deep respect for his Don, Vito Corleone. The Godfather describes him "like a force of nature" that the Don has to account for and use carefully, not someone that he controls. Don Corleone manages Luca's bloodlust and violent tendencies with the jobs he assigns him, particularly brutal ones that let Luca Brasi vent on some poor bastard.
That's a way to play Chaotic Evil WITHOUT causing unnecessary party conflict.

Chaotic evil is petty and unforgiveable, unless we're talking about a literal child.

Oh you're talking about playing a chaotic evil character, not building an antagonist?
My opinion is this kind of character only works in an only-evil or "I'm in for the money" party. Chaotic evil is a redflag in online games for a good reason.
My only tip as a goody-two-shoes is that you must remember, just because you have a bridge and a river in front of you, doesn't mean you must shit in the water.