re: D&D first time player, any advice? *Shifting to Pathfinder

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Isn’t neutral evil completely crazy?

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No, that’s chaotic neutral. Neutral evil is best conceptualized by comparing it to lawful and chaotic evil. A lawful evil character has a code that he lives by - it just happens to be a bad code. Maybe he’s a militaristic tyrant. Maybe he is a strict follower of an evil god. Either way, he wants and respects structure, but his intentions are evil. You can cut a deal with a LE character and reasonably expect him to carry out his part of it. Chaotic evil, on the other hand, has no respect for structure and actively works to destroy it. Anarchy is the goal. You cannot trust a CE character, period. They will lie, cheat, and steal even if there isn’t a good reason to, simply to sow chaos and discord.

Neutral evil falls between those two extremes. NE characters will use and abide by laws and structures, if their use furthers their own goals, or they are just as happy to go around them or to work to destroy them. Whatever serves the NE character’s own selfish purposes is all that matters.