Evil in a Good Party

Or: "How to play an Evil character in a Good party without alienating yourself, pissing off the players, or pissing off the Game Master. 

Our sister is in a Pathfinder campaign, and decided she was going to play a rogue - with a major focus on stealth (+20 by Level 5), deadly sneak attack dice (3d8), and a Neutral Evil alignment. The game master, who has played with us for over a decade, trusted her enough to let it slide, and away we went.

The way she's been playing the character's pretty straightforward.  She doesn't quite hang out with us as we travel - she's perpetually in stealth mode (can move her full speed or even run while remaining stealthed). So our group never knows where she is or what she's doing until she lets herself be seen. She does talk with the group but her interaction is usually light during travel time.

During a mission into a building, she infiltrated ahead of us because she was the only one who wouldn't trip security. She scoured the entire building top to bottom, and gave the group a full report of what's going on - without stealing anything. The logic she gave out of character:  my character knows better than to shit where she eats.

She tends to be snarky (to our partner's delight), and takes a bit of a 'sigh, okay fine' attitude if she has to aid someone who isn't part of the group. Not too bad overall, but not really evil as such.

Well, tonight's session changed that and showed that yes, she is, in fact, evil.  The village we were in was being invaded by an enemy tribe that wanted to drag them off to be sacrificed to the vampire ruler and their dark god in the middle of the night. Of course, the PCs rush out to put a stop to it.  One PC casts Entangle, the other casts Web on top of it, and then the fight became a lot more manageable.

Except that one PC got hit with a 'terror' effect and fled, and another almost got hit with the same thing. So, the rogue spits a small black cat (way out of place in the middle of "Central America"), and sneaks up on it.  Grabs it, grapples it.  It transforms into a horrific little beastie.

So she pins it.  "Stop squirming, or I'll stuff you in a sack, and beat you to death."

It squirms more.

"Like I said.  Stop squirming, or I'll stuff you in a sack and beat you to death."

It stopped moving.  She identified it as a creature from the outer planes, corrupted psychopomps that serve a dark god.  Neutral Evil.

Her thought:  Mine.

So, she negotiates with it, and it relents, turns into a cat for her, and she walks off into the village.  Didn't lift a finger to actually help during the fight. (Not to worry, the players were cool with this - this is RP, and RP trumps combat, and the group was doing well anyway, and she just neutralised the biggest threat to the party).

The party gets back into the village, where an uber Lawful Good divine Coatl is checking in on us.  We asked about the rest of the village, note that they're okay, and then the coatl asks, "did you see a eskil" - the thing the rogue was talking with.

Her: "Oh, yeah." Coatl: "Did you kill it?" Her: "It was dealt with."

The group's like 'that's a euphemism', and the coatl rolls Sense Motive. The rogue's like 'I'm not even trying to hide what I'm saying'. She brings out the black cat.

Coatl: You do realize that's a spy, right? Like, it communicates with the other sahkil in the outer planes and probably serves them.

Her: "I made it an offer it couldn't refuse. I figured I'd make it my familiar. It might be useful." Coatl: "I can't tell you what to do..."

So, rogue looks at the creature, sense motive. Yeah it hates her, it hates the PC party, it's hostile as hell. She sighs, and takes out her kukri.

Having the ability to hide weapons on herself that are almost impossible to find, with her degree of stealth that prevents anyone including the thing being held in her arm, to see her draw it, and slit its throat in one deft move. Instant kill. It reverts to horrid form, choking as it dies, and she cleans her blade and sighs. "I'm disappointed."

Coatl: "You made a wise choice."

The Neutral Good character: "That was cold."

It cemented the idea in the group that she's working with the group, is a damn good ally for the group, but is ruthless when she has reason to be. It was very much a "glad she's on our side" moment.