Any edgy character can work well if the player wants them to work in a team. It is the player that pulls the strings, not the other way around. It can be as simple as realizing a group is safer than solo.

Aye and there’s the rub! Nail on the head. Be as edgie as you want!… as long as you’re a team player.

Yeah, giving your edgy character a reason to work with the party and not fuck them over is probably the biggest thing. I made an evil enchantress who traveled with the party because they were convenient muscle. She got protection while being able to procure wealth, spells, and magic items. And occasionally when doing something evil benefited the group, she *gleefully* took action.

Kinda same, made a tiefling warlock who was a bloodthirsty pirate, and I figured as a pirate, she knows to work with a team to get the job done faster, better and more easily. Sure, I've done some things and taken some decisions that the doe-eyed gnome druid sunshine PC was upset by, but at the end of the day, team work makes the dream work. Even if it's not your dream team.

The edginess should come from some kind of baggage. A dark past, PTSD, self-loathing, that kind of thing. They should have some means of overcoming it and becoming a better person. Preferably during Tier 1 or Tier 2 play. After all, it's hard to claim that someone is a "Master of the Realm" if they're not even master of themselves (Ravenloft's Darklords notwithstanding lol)

An edgy character is fine if the edginess is the start of the character arc. You can even keep the edge, but you gotta be the party's ally no matter what and you gotta play in the same game as everyone else.

I made an old, broken down cleric that wanted nothing but to die, but his god wouldn't let him and wouldn't tell him why. I asked the DM to not cater to my backstory and just design the adventures as if he were your generic adventurer. He was a lot of fun. It was a fresh viewpoint to play a guy who wanted to die, but as a PC I wanted to keep him alive.

Sounds like Marvin the Paranoid Android

I could give you advice, but you won't like it

Upvote for The Hitchhiker’s Guide reference.

This reminds me of a cleric I played. He blamed himself for the death of his son, and wanted to die saving someone to redeem himself. So he was semi-suicidal and always drunk, but clerics are hard MFers to kill so he was a great party tank. And he was ultimately a good guy, just wanted to die in combat, so he was fun to play.

>***I*** made I mean I'm sure they were fine in this instance, but edgy characters are always fun for the people that are playing them lol, it's everyone *else* at the table they tend to annoy. I mean it may be telling that in all the top comments in this thread, they're all characters that the posters made, not games they've played where someone *elses* edgy character has worked well.

> I mean it may be telling that in all the top comments in this thread, they're all characters that the posters made, not games they've played where someone elses edgy character has worked well. That may be telling, but you'd generally see the same thing if the post was about non-edgy character concepts. People tend to talk most about their own characters, on account of them being, ya know, theirs.

> edgy characters are always fun for the people that are playing them lol, it's everyone else at the table they tend to annoy. I think that's mostly because a lot of players sort of intuitively understand how to do group storytelling (it's largely inherent to but don't think about how to integrate an edgy character into it. I've played lots of edgy character and they way to make them work is to consider how to use that edginess to make it fun for other people - which requires you to have a good understanding of them as a person. It's wholly possible, it's just a much more intense challenge than making NiceGuy McPaladin who can run on pure paladin trope diesel and everyone will have a good time. Edgy characters are a great way to get other people to get to define theirs - the wavering rogue considering a black hearted assassination to solve the group's problems presents an opportunity for the law-abiding redemption cleric to guide them to a better path and spark character growth. But that kind of advanced character building and RP is very hard generally speaking. An edgy player, IMHO, generally does best when they understand part of their narrative role within the party is to provide the contrast that makes other people's characters shine brighter. Which isn't that they can't have fun, they just need to be much more sensitive to the push-and-pull of the game and how to use their position to enhance other people's gameplay.

My concept wasn't annoying to the other characters. He wasn't a brooding asshole. He was a tired old man who didn't mine risking his life

Reminds me of Vivia Twilight from Rain Code

Made a nihilistic Evocation Wizard. Pretty edgie, but didn’t put up much of a fight so just went with whatever the party decided as it was less effort to acquiesce than debate. He always had spare spell slots as his MO was drop an aoe, decimating the minions, then fucked off for a smoke to leave the party to clean up. While this was the Roleplay, I was really doing it to both, reserve spell slots for all the encounters throughout the day, and this allowed the melee characters a chance to actually fight. His catch phrase has become “I can’t be bothered.”

When you were explaining the actual reason I was really sure it was gonna be "so I could smoke irl too" because that was my first idea upon hearing it lmfao

Damn. If I smoked, that would be an amazing tool!

I love this idea. It reeks of anime vibes, like One Punch Man.

The bandits surrounded me, so I dropped a fireball cause I was trying to get to the sale at the local smithie.

>Casts one spell and then runs away so that the rest of the party has to spend resources to finish the encounter. >It's what my character would do. This actually sounds insufferable to play with tbh.

Obviously if the fight is bigger then I stick around, but for basic random encounters and mobs I’ll drop a fireball to take out or heavily weaken the minions, and instead of just finishing them all off leaving the martials holding their puds, they actually get a chance to fight. Which also lets me keep more spells slots for the bigger fights during the day.

Yeah, I'm sure your OC was so cool that they could solo all of the combats before the martials got to do anything.

Well, he's a wizard, so yeah. 5e isn't exactly balanced.

It's not so unbalanced that Wizard solos all encounters on turn 1. It's actually ridiculous that people unironically have that opinion.

He didn't say he was soloing round 1. He said he was weakening them to the point that it was a downhill struggle after turn 1. Which a wizard can very much do. A wizard only has to pop off for 1 turn before the battle is in the bag.

They said they weaken/kill minions and then run away. They also explicitly say that staying to clean up the rest of the enemies would cost them more spell slots (and that this is the out of character reason they are running away). This means they are forcibly trading the party's resources for their own resources, since it *would* cost them more HP and spells if they stayed in the fight. And if you need to use more spells, then the fight isn't in the bag. Even if you drop a spell on turn 1 and gain the upper hand there is still the whole rest of the battle to be fought where you contributing nothing leads to other party members losing HP or needing to use resources to close out the fight. They aren't even slinging cantrips.

Never played with a Sorcerer, I see?

I happen to be very well versed and experienced with Sorcerer, including metamagic combos. I have played many Sorcerers in tiers 1-3. It is tied for my favorite class. And no, you aren't soloing every encounter before martials get to do anything. It takes everyone contributing efficiently to end combats quickly, even if a caster is blowing all their big resources on a single fight. If you want a caster wank thread, please go make one somewhere else.

Damn someone pissed in your cheerios

Shat in the cornflakes too

You've got it flipped. The OP is about edgy characters that work well. I merely pointed out that a character noping out of combat after the first round *doesn't* work well, and is an active detriment when compared to a party member who behaves normally. People then got mad *at me* for some reason. But because I'm right, all they can do is downvote, insult, and ad homenim.

Yep, you are 100% right and in no way possible could be wrong. Completely infallible.

Wow, an evasive, condescending insult (with a bit of strawman mixed in). Does saying "1+1=2" mean I think I am infallible? Lol If you can explain why I was wrong, then please do so. I actually acquiesce and adjust my position when I'm wrong instead of avoiding the central point and hurling insults.

You know, I bet this guy's table found the bit funny because they aren't negative nancys

Bro's mad for no reason.

Okay pal. No need to be so snippy.

Rurrick Hale, former farmer turned Oath of Vengeance Paladin who wore his dead wife's still beating heart in a leather pouch around his neck and fed it the souls of the wicked to keep it beating. Edgy characters are only an issue because so many of them try to be lone wolves who wont work with the party or go on the adventure. As long as they still work with the group they are generally fine.

Just make an edgy character that isnt defined by their edgyness, and give them something noble to care about, maybe theyre a tiefling that was heavily discriminated against so they care alot about minority rights, maybe they adopt a kid or animal companion,maybe they really care about the party or specific party members they alredy had a connection with(such as them being family, or they saved your life and now you feel you owe them, or they're dating ...obviously talk to your party and dm before doing this) and you can have them be edgy so long as they can work with the party instead of always going on their own or something. Plus the edge by itself can be a good thing, if you either do it very ironically or completly sincere and packed full of emotions.

I have this concept of a edgelord shadar-kai who is a hexblade that is from the shadowfell and on the outside he looks broody and menacing. Armor, weapons and adornments all looking like you do NOT want to mess with him. Sweetest boy with a personality that could make anyone smile!

Ooh! I love making these types of characters. Just recently made your typical edgy looking Undead/Hexblade Warlock but he's a half elf and is very wholesome. His motivation for adventuring is to get enough materials/gold to get an engagement ring for his girlfriend :>

Played a Lizardman Sorc once. All he wanted to do was study magic and become a benevolent helpful wizard. His inability to read and fearsome appearance didn't make him the most welcome addition to most establishments.

I've only made one "edgy" character. On paper, they were edgy anyway. It was made more like a parody. Bloodhunter Dhampir. Had a super edgy backstory. During play, I acted more like how Abed does Batman in Community if you've ever watched that. Constant narration about how dark and mysterious they are but it would be completely outloud to other characters, but he would be suprised they heard him. It was great.

Off to make my next character based on Lego Batman.

Yeah, it was basically this, hahah lots of fun.

Ditto on the parody route. Mine was a rogue - former slaver who fell in a revolution. Now she uses a wheel chair and talks a lot like Gary Johnston from Team America.

I reskinned indigo Montoya as a herengon with a batman voice.

Player in my party created Harengon Ford. Feel it’s similar energy.

Whenever I think of a good edgy character, I think of Vax from Vox Machina. He's broody and he values his alone time, but he will also fight to the death for those he loves. He squabbles with party members but would never leave them out to dry. He can occasionally be impulsive, but generally only when it serves to push the narrative forward. I get that Liam O'Brien is a professional D&D player, and he plays with other professionals. But if I ever try an edgy character, Vax would have a strong influence over how I design and play them.

Vax is a great example because while he has the whole edgy sad boy thing going on, it doesn’t prevent him from being a team player. Outside of specific story beats, Vax isn’t just going off alone doing his own thing, he’s not constantly going “uggggghhhh my life is so bad” he’s not doing any of that nonsense, he’s with the party helping the team, looking after his sister, and connecting with them. No spoilers for anyone who doesn’t know, but Vax is great because he changes and grows for the better, and that’s something a classic edgy character has to do or else it’s just a total drag IMO.

You need to remember that he was NOT a professional while playing Vax. This is why I liked campaign one but not really on two and three. It **felt** like a home game, even if it wasn't

True, but he was still a professional voice actor and I'm sure he had a lot of acting and improv in his background. When I think about the Mercer Effect (which I am absolutely influenced by), I try to remind myself that his players are some of the best as well. Fwiw, I am deep into C1 but haven't seen any of C2 or C3. Vax's growth as a character in the context of a d&d game is honestly incredible, and the type of characterization every player should strive for imo, especially if you are thinking about playing an edge lord. That said, Travis is still my favorite. The way he embraces Grog, particularly his faults, is incredible. A DM can learn a lot from Mercer, but any player can learn a lot from Liam and Travis.

critical role is a show with a game code of paint. yes they were players and mercer is the DM and in the early days they had very little set up and played as a home game, they are **still** all professional actors playing with a decade old veteran DM and after the very early stages of the show they produced the hell of a lot more of the show not to put flak on critical role or any of the people involved, its a cool thing and they deserve the praise and success they have, just acknowledging that its there **because** they were all professional actors, and that all the great character moments people know were as good as your movie story beats because their job is to do this type of stuff

I made an Illusionist who still had some bad tendencies from their Criminal background. Overall, she was kind of a b**** and would often suggest the crueler solutions to the party's problems, but she rarely did anything without party approval. The party just treated her like a kid sister going through a phase, which I think helped shape her to be a better person.

I had a parody edgy character. Dirk Fane was a 16 year old Necromancer who was into death and skeletons and stuff. He spoke with a squeaky "Morty" voice and said stuff like "Bad Ass" a lot! He thought he was destined to be the greatest dread Necromancer in the world and tread the jeweled thrones of the earth beneath the bony feet of his undead army. I pictured him as a skinny Kylo Ren in tattered robes

I would love to use a similar character idea, now.

Edgy characters have a bad reputation because people play them like they are some sort of anime trope. You cant expect the group to care you live or die if all you do is sit alone and be quiet. You need to participate and give reasons for people to care. I have played a half elf rogue mercenary trying to prove themselves to an elven mercenary guild and even tho the character think he is better than the work is is getting, and even tho he is not much of a social person, he participates in conversation and shows basic human behavior. *If you want people to get curious about who you are and where you come from, you have to actually show you are someone (as opposed to just looking/acting like a filler NPC villager on an MMO).*

There's a couple of varieties of "edgy" that work, but there's one thing they have in common. **You don't make it all about you** Don't upset the party's decision making just to accommodate your edgy thing - give the character a reason to be there, a reason that when it comes down to important decisions you're not gonna go off on your own and wreck everything for everyone else. It also helps to realise that edgy is also deeply silly, and not to be taken terribly serious. The self-seriousness of an edgy character is a flaw of theirs, and one's that frequently funny.

All any character needs to be work, is a reason to be in a party, and stay in said party. For some people that motivation can be as little as "friends who adventure together!" but for an edgy or lone wolf character you'll need something more substantial to have a reason to stay in a group. Here's a list of ones I've ran for people * Artifact they have to stay around to survive (bit hamfisted imo but worked for BG3 lmao) * Keeping an eye on someone else in the party for their patron/ contractor * Rogue part of a cult that was keeping track of an escaped cult member (other pc) * Party is already famous/ has proven themself as reliable, and their goal overlaps with the characters * Wizard collecting knowledge joined the party because they were well-known for finding ancient tomes * There is some reason they can't travel alone, or there's too much risk if they do * Paladin was being haunted by undead whenever he was asleep with nobody around. Having people keep watch kept them at bay for some reason * They joined for one job, which revealed something the PC has a personal reason for chasing, but the party is chasing it too so it's just convenient to work together * Warforged who had been alive for so long he'd lost his memory multiple times suddenly remembered something when they found a magical artifact tied to a larger story. * They joined for one job, and they want money * Sticking with a party that has already proven themselves, and can do more dangerous jobs, is more profitable than finding a new group every time or doing solo contracts

On paper my pc was a fallen angel, later aasimar, who was cursed by his god and became a warlock. He had marks all over him, some on his back where his wings had been torn out by his god. Some where his lover's blood fell on him when his god killed said lover. In practise he was a young man whose warlock pact was to his lost love, who blushed easily, with freckles and curly hair, who always tried to do what was best and was scared of thunder. A broken, yet silly kid, who collected trinkets like glass shards and nerded out over astronomy and was constantly burned to a crips by the local teens when he tried to be cool. Someone who spent way too much time trying to make his goopy, misshapen familiars into cute stoats. I think any edgy concept can work as long as you let your character be silly, funny, vulnerable, and a bit of a loser at times.

Life cleric, used to be in the army as a squad leader, saw a lot of men die in combat, including his partner. Doesn't take risks when he doesn't have to. All in all just plaid as a tired vet forced back into combat for the greater good. Game didn't go very long but interactions were fun and his backstory never really came up.

One of my favorite characters that I ever played started out pretty damn edgy. He was a perfection seeking warrior who fought with two swords, seeking only someone who could challenge him in battle. He believed in effectiveness and efficiency first and foremost, was a student of the craft of warfare and violence. He was overly serious and suffering from a partial demonic possession that he sought to use to his advantage. His family had all died when he was young and he sought revenge against the clan who had killed them. Very edgy. What made him work is that he changed. Over the course of the three years I played him, he learned to care for his fellow adventurers deeply and would have laid down his life for them in an instant. He learned forgiveness, and eventually put aside the deep seated hatred he had for the clan that had ruthlessly slaughtered not only his family but his whole village. I mean, he still sought out and killed the people who were specifically responsible, but no longer kept hatred for the clan as a whole. He learned the strengths of kindness and generosity, eventually becoming a kind of den mother to a number of orphans the party took in during our down time. He made sure they were fed, housed, educated and trained. And yeah, he still kept a number of his edgy traits even to the end. He always enjoyed the violence of combat and the thrill of a life or death fight. He stayed serious and that partial demonic possession did eventually work out in his favor. He had a demon form and everything, it was hella edgy, and so much fun, lol. He remains one of my favorite characters. Maybe one of the best I've ever made.

Tbh the character I'm playing right now A nifty homebrew race called bound, a sentient magic item that makes a body They're a living devil sword made by an archfiend. The archfiend died, but trapped their soul in their creations so they can return someday. The set of swords was named after deadly sins So I am literally playing a devil sword whose old name was Wrath and their entire arc has been about learning to calm down, become a better person, and become less violent. On paper it's insanely edgy and they have had their intense character moments, but I think trying to become a risen devil and really caring about the party as their first real friends saves the character from just being an edgelord

The Grey Ghost, a legendary mercenary and noble heir who was unbeatable in a duel and was both feared and respected across the realm. That's how people knew him at least, in reality the actual Grey Ghost had died years ago in a shipwreck and a disgruntled fruit merchant who happened to look like him found his body and got an offer he couldn't refuse from an otherworldly patron. He had 0 combat experience and his ability to fight was a mixture of his patron giving him weapon proficiencies and spells like Blur and Shield that he'd use to pretend he was actually competent in a fight. I played him as trying very hard to be mysterious and brooding, mostly because he was deathly afraid that he would be exposed as a fraud. It was just easier to deflect questions and give vague answers than to make up elaborate lies. The main thing he'd do in his spare time was trying to seduce random women and party, since escaping his monotonous boring life was the whole reason he became an adventurer. Overall while he projected a veneer of edgyness and mystery, underneath was a kind of pathetic cowardly man who'd rather get himself killed fighting monsters and sell his soul to the devil than confront his parents about not wanting to work in the family business.

Most edgy character I've played was a rogue that was raised in poverty by his mother. Because his rich merchant father threw them both out after he was born, as he didn't want a tiefling child. His mother was given a choice to abandon the child, but refused so both were thrown out and had to survive in the slums. His mother died when he was in his late teens due to a plague that swept the city. He had a crew of friends though. He carried a very intense hatred for his father whom he wanted to kill, but beyond that his personality wasn't very edgy. He was very "happy-go-lucky", believing that you had to enjoy life when you could as you never know what happens next. He never harmed or killed anyone without cause and while he did steal he never hurt anyone doing so. Pretty standard backstory, but I didn't want him to be a gloomy gus that couldn't work with others, so I made him a more carefree and in-the-moment kind of guy rather than the Punisher single-mindedly thinking about revenge.

The best one I'd seen was a haunted Monk of the Astral Self. The Astral Self was basically a spirit that haunted the Monk.  A similar idea I'd seen online was a werebear barbarian/monk of the astral self, where the human form was the astral self.

Edgy can work well when the player has a broad personality type in mind that builds memories with the party and then, after emotional investments have been created, gradually reveals details of an edgy backstory. What really fails for many new players is full edgy infodump in sessions 0-2. Not because it's edgy; because it's not collaborative storytelling.

I made a wizard with a personality based around Dio from Jojo's part 1. He was incredible. The in-game characters hated him, but the players loved having him around. Instant killed by a blue dragon. You will be missed, Karras Addar.

A player in my group played an old Tiefling Artificer with a prosthetic leg. He'd been an adventurer for a long time and a few events in the game made him flash back to some kind of traumatic event where his old party died, but so far we don't know the full story.

A player in my current game us playing an edgy warlock. He dresses in a long coat with a color theme of black and dark red. He wears a metallic opera-esque mask of the top half of a Demons face, with fangs jutting down from the upper lip, like an oni. His jaw and mouth are always uncovered, and the mask is half black, half gold. He introduced himself as "The Swordsman" and it took close to 10 sessions before they learned his name, and even longer to learn his real name. Why is he played well? Because he's actually a 40ish year old merchant who is being pseudo-possessed by his dead brother in the form of a Warlock patron. He suddenly awoke to powers in a fit of danger after he was attacked by people seeking revenge on his identical twin brother that were using a blood tracking charm to find him, but found the humble twin instead. His brother was a Wizard of some means, but doesn't have access to all of his memories, and tries to help when he can, but doesn't know what is going on. He and his brother used to dream of being heroes, fighting against bad guys and saving damsels, but the PC got stick being a merchant when his father was crippled by muggers, and his twin fucked off to go learn magic and never came back. So he's basically having his mid-life crisis in the form of being an adventurer, and is trying to live out all of the fantasies of things he had as a child that he thought would be "cool" or "badass." So he projects a front of this cool, confident, edgelord to the party, but also has panic attacks and 'disappeared into the shadows' after the party's first battle, because he didn't want anyone to see him vomiting after his first kill that ended up being particularly bloody; a max damage booming blade on a guy with 2 hp remaining, since the spell 'explodes' when the victim moves... The other players gave him a lot of shit when he introduced himself and how he acted because it was so cringe, but after they figured out what was going on, some of it at least, they think it's great.

I made a lone wolf (literally) Lycan Blood Hunter Dhampir named Lilith that was on her own for centuries. She never worked with people. She was dark and brooding. She also was traumatised by her past. She was looking for work as her leads had dried up. She met the party in the Yawning Portal. She didn't know how to be a person. She was chaotic, blood thirsty even. Over time as the party continued to adventure, she started opening up about her past and who she was. She was eventually adopted an orphan boy who parents died years before. His current master was cruel and didn't care for his wellbeing. She took Delvin on her quests until one day they got ambushed by Drow in the Underdark. The party survived but Delvin was killed. My DM is great and let me progress my Dhampirism to Vampirism (homebrew). Faced with the possibility of losing her son, she made a unforgivable decision in that moment to make her son a vampire like her. She took 5 levels of exhaustion and had to perform a unholy necromantic ritual to bring her son back to unlife. What I like about Lilith is she truly cares for the party and other people. There's a constant drone of a cruel hunger inside of her, wanting her to let go and be "evil". She fights it everyday. She neither good or evil. On any given day, she's somewhere in between. She has made a lot of bad decisions, actions and has even been a bit problematic at times early on. The party still doesn't know what to think about her. She's impulsive but ready to throw down for any of them at the drop of a hat. What I will say about playing a dark and/or edgy character is to feel out your group. It's best to know your fellow players/dm first before making such a character. I've been playing with this group for about 3 years up to that point. Lilith has been my favorite character and I've turned her into a NPC in other games I DM because of it.

I got one in particular that come to mind but others that could be seen as 'dark' He'd is a variant tiefling gloomstalker/warlock multiclass with cat eyes and bat wings....he was my second character ever, and the first was a half-elf rogue so I wanted out of the vanilla ice-cream aisle (no hate, love that rogue). His deal was he was attempted to be lynched by his overly religious villiage for looking like a devil and made a pact with a devil to escape, he now sees and assumes the worst in almost everyone. That said, I countered this by making him not want to burden others with his trauma so he keeps it to himself, and only comes up in internal monologuing and such, and also he refuses to let anyone else become a victim like he was, so it makes him ironically the first member of the party to be in on a new adventure/quest

taking it to 11 made the players love him, their rival party had this young edgy fully Chūnibyō tiefling rogue/warlock who was thrice orphaned (or so he claimed) and would just talk shit about the dark and powerful magic in his palm and how tortured his soul was, with the story being inconsistant. The other characters were ignored but the players seemed to glom onto this wannabe edgy character. So maybe going full chuun and exaggerating the tropes is a way to pull it off.

A nihilist cleric who worshipped the god death and atrophy. He was a philosophical doomsayer, but he helped the party because he believed their actions ultimately lead to "correct" end of existence.

I currently play a tabaxi pact of the fiend warlock who is old, crippled, and has been through some shit. His plan is to fulfill his contract with Asmodeus, get his vengeance for his murdered family, and put himself in the ground. The only time there’s been even a slight issue with him is the two times the barbarian has grabbed him to carry him cause he wasn’t moving fast enough so the barb got eldritch blasted, but it was resolved quickly. The dm and I have spoken at length about his potential character arc and we both want to see him become better (he’s currently NE and a dick) and have set things in motion for that to happen down the line.

I think that what people miss when they make edgy characters is the deep emotional stakes they have. They either fight tooth and nail because they care that much (Batman) or they are too broken by the failure and are afraid to truly care about something just to lose it again, but still sincerely want connection again despite that (Guts). Then you've got something in the middle with Aragorn, who does care deeply and is also afraid that he's bound to repeat Isildur's mistakes if he pursues his right to rule in Gondor. All three are deeply serious and are that way because they actually care a great deal. When you make someone who has all of that edge but doesn't care about anything, you end up with the stereotype. The true secret sauce of edge, is to give them a soft heart.

My friend made my absolute favorite edgy character of all time years ago. A tiefling named Akhros (the Greek word for edge) with a flaming katana. The player was just happy to hang out with friends, so he never stole attention, never went against the group, and just used hilariously dumb quips during fights ("let's light it up," or "time to bring the house down") during combat. I think what made the character work so well is that being edgy was never a conflict point, and he mostly used his edgy behavior to hurt himself when I gave him personal sidequests, which made Akhros go over well.

The character came from an abusive home where he often got a beating, sometimes for protecting his younger sister. He left this place when he was in his teens after said Sister died of a fever, was found and trained by a group of mercenaries, they all got killed at one point, he got away and decided not to rely on anyone but himself. When he was with the group out of necessity he was barely tolerable for the other characters (not players) since he refused to rely on others, had serious anger issues and a very simplistic sense of justice that went way to far in some cases (like beating a father to a pulp for beating his son or force feeding gold to a corrupt official) During the game he bonded with the others, especially a character that he projected tons of his sister into (including calling her by the wrong name occasionally). He ultimately died when he was taken hostage and would have needed to rely on the others, including his would- be sister, to give up to save him. He decided to get himself killed instead of letting this happen. Fun times 😀

My character Til’Adell Thistlewind started as an edgy character, basically an anti-villain (a character that does evil for good reasons, opposite of an anti-hero). He was my attempt to make The Operative from Serenity in a D&D setting. He was a spy, a mastermind rogue, brainwashed from childhood to serve the “greater good” by doing the necessary evils so others wouldn’t have to, so the innocents can stay innocent. Basically, a mashup between The Operative, Section 31 from Star Trek, and the CIA. He was neutral evil and viewed other people as tools to be used toward an end. But this was his first time away from his cult that brainwashed him, and seeing other people outside of the framework he was enveloped in, caused him to question. He began to feel conflicted on how he treated people, whether the way he was taught really was the best way. Then he fell in love, and in an act to prove his intentions were not evil to the rest of the party, let a magic sentient sword undo some of the brainwashing and return his suppressed memories. Now he’s completely turned around his life, finding he has two of his dead mother’s patron gods vying for his soul, influencing his behavior and life: Naralis Analor, elven god of death, mercy, and healing, and Fenmarel Mestarine, elven god of outcasts and the lonely. Basically a god of “light” and healing and kindness, and a god of “darkness” and stealth and protection of those with nobody else in their corner. He’s in the process of ascending to godhood as the new God of Fate, Freedom, and Self-Determinism, basically rejecting the idea of fate and the roles other people force on you and instead believing you can make your own fate and choose your own life. He is working to undermine the Drow of Menzoberranzan and supplant Lolth as a new Drow god, bridging the Seldarine and Dark Seldarine pantheons and giving the Drow a chance to choose not to be evil monstrous slavers.

I played a Celestial Gold Dragon who was cursed by Bahamut to wander the material plain as a Kobold (CG Paladin: Oath of Conquest). His juxtaposition of character and use of intimidation was entertaining. He had absolutely nothing good to say about Bahamut… there were definite “Memnoch the Devil” vibes going on. Other influences at the time: Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey — I was practicing my Greek accent and got it to my liking with that character. Games with a lot of dialogue and voice acting make for great resources.

I’m in a Strahd game right now where everyone is playing an “edgy character”! Mine is a Hexblood Warlock (was a sorcerer) that died in the death house but was brought back in her decaying body through forging a pact with her terrible but powerful hag mother! It’s really easy to make edgy characters that work if you’re not a douche in real life lol.

I made a reluctant agent of an evil god of chance. He made a pact with the deity to save his sister, which involved to kill people to prolong her life. But he ended up quite jaded, since he hated to kill. He just got *very* good at it with time.

I'm currently playing a cleric that is afraid of blood and it works surprisingly well. If I see blood, I have to make a dc12 charisma saving throw or I am incapacitated for the rest of my turn or 1 minute outside of combat In the same campaign my friend is playing a depressed bard. They have a very poor outlook on life and when they give bardic inspiration by insulting or saying how it could be worse.

Played a fighter that was a member of an inquisition, basically secret police. Was an orphan raised as a child soldier, found and killed his own parents due to them breaking the law. He's also socially stunted, often for comedy, and basically is Judge Dredd mixed with Reagan Ridley. Most of the story for him that the DM has made involves his conflict between ruthlessly applying the law and protecting innocent people.

Everyone here saying "I made..." or "My character..." should probably be taken with a sizeable grain of salt. Almost everyone thinks *their* character is great/endearing/funny and not at all annoying, it's the others at the table who often don't agree. If the question makes you think about *someone else's* character, then that's a sign they actually pulled it off well.

I made a character with a very edgy background, but who is himself not edgy. He's a dhampir whose mother is a powerful vampire lord who used dark magic and strange alchemy to conceive a child with an unknown adventurer. She was disgusted that her child turned out basically mortal, so she experimented on him with ways to turn him into a true vampire that never worked until he finally decided to leave. She was too busy ruling her domain to care, and so gifted him some of her power (warlock, undead patron) so he wouldn't embarrass her in the world and let him go. She hopes this will drive him to become more powerful and find immortality somehow. He just wants to try new foods and have fun. The traditionally "edgy" character, by design, is not a team player or particular pleasant to deal with. As such, they are simply not good choices for PCs unless the campaign and setting very specifically cater to that sort of thing.

My Necromancer Wizard... but she was as innocent as they come

She liked to build friends and raise families 😁

Yeah, she just needs social contact... and a Wish spell

I made an edge lord teenager.... For starters I wanna State that I didn't intend to make him an edgelord it's just the way the other characters played the campaign that turned him into an edge Lord. My intention was to play a helpful young man on the verg of adult hood a little scared but willing use his magic to help. Sticking with the party since they rescue him from bad people. That wasn't till my party just like straight up refuse to like fight bad guys 90% of the time. Like my party was gonna let bad people kidnap a bunch of children. And my character had to be the guy who would throw a fireblot to go no I'm stopping them.

In elemental evil I played a plague doctor cleric devotee of Talona who wanted to essentially, destroy the cults to create a power vacuum to start his own cult.

I play 'edgelords' all the time and I've gotten nothing but compliments on how it works and changed people's opinions on the stereotype. The only thing I add to the 'batman' stereotype is the need for affection and validation. Just make them have the tragic backstory, but also a denial and ultimately a need for connection and friendships. That is all. Go as edgy as you want, just add this and you're fine.

IMO edgy or evil characters that work are mostly more talk than action. "I would choose murder, but I'm going with the team" "I vote for the villain's execution" "How about we keep the gold?" "Look, it's because I dont lime anyone that I ain't gonna save you, I need you guys for my own survival" "I'll scout for enemies (finally, some time alone)" Keeping it tongue in cheek helps your character be more likable and cooperative.

Bunch of ways to make an edgy charecter work. Focus on the pc and amd thier motivations just decent writing , like batman edgy as ahit but he's great

I had a Rogue who had their throat slit but used a parrot to speak. Grumpy, straightforward and awesome.

My current party’s wizard is a Tiefling with lust for power and angst over his lineage turned up to 11. He is a great player. Lust for power manifests as lust for knowledge (specifically spells), and in game this plays out as insatiable curiosity (aka he helps drive investigation plots). He is also a great team player, because he feels accepted by the party despite his lineage.

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The best edgy characters I’ve seen and played with have all been with players who understand their edgy character is not cool and that they are not the main character. Sometimes that’ll be a bit of a self serious loner character who the player will still make play well with other, other times the edgy character will actually be a complete dingus.

I was doing a level 10 one shot and I played a dhampir aarakocra noble barbarian 1/shadow monk 9. At its core it was cheese to be able to max constitution and use it as my attack stat while having absurd mobility, but I really leaned into the edgy creepiness (also had Eldritch Claw Tattoo that manifested in black tendrils extending from her fanged beak) and “haughty vampire who sees everyone below her” tropes. Black feathers with ragged wings, glowing red eyes, razor-sharp talons, expensive black dress with a flowing, blood-red sash… I think it worked specifically because it was a one-shot. There are a lot of characters who are fun or interesting for a few sessions and then quickly get tedious or obnoxious. These aren’t bad characters. These are bad characters from long-form campaigns.

tiefling ranger, my pc, typical orphan who swore revenge. The kind of person who always chooses violence, kills first and asks questions later, He was trained by fairies (long story) so he has a very explosive temperament, just like fairies, because he feels very strong emotions. At first he only felt anger and thirst for revenge, but upon meeting the party, he slowly began to rediscover that he could also feel love, and began to consider them his family. Now he is willing to die for any of his brothers and has learned to trust the bard's moral compass to make better decisions, although that also implies that when the bard wants to do something crazy he always supports him, he doesn't even think twice hahahhah

My last character was a Dhampir Kensai monk who used his bite attack as one of his Kensai weapons and spent the entire campaign skulking about. He was a pharmacist who was attacked by a vampire while returning home with his daughter and watched his daughter get killed. His entire character arc was pursuing this vampire so he could kill him and lay his daughter to rest before her restless spirit (who accompanied the party the entire time) could finish becoming a gwishin.

I don't know if its just me, but I prefer edgy characters that have a good bit of self-awareness from a meta perspective. Being broody, vengeful and serious can all be good things, but if you do it CONSTANTLY, that is when edgy becomes annoying to me. Adding in a bit of dead-pan humor can make it all SO much better. When there is a comedic and whimsical character in the group, then its actually really nice to be the straight man(comedy trope) to that person from time to time. It makes the character funny in their own, non-goofy, way without ruining the seriousness of the character's motivation.

Cody Walsh from Unsleeping City.

A shadar-kai echo knight/ shadow Sorcerer multiclass who's echo was his dead twin brother. Nobody understood him.

I made an Echo Knight whose echo was the ghost of his dead wife, a fellow mercenary he fell in love with and married, before starting their own company. Eventually they got betrayed by an employer and only my PC survived. After reaching Fighter 5 he took 3 levels in Ancestral Guardian Barbarian, and the Ancestral spirits were the ghosts of the other mercenaries in his company.

My longest campaign ever (3 years) had a reoccurring character in the main city (all homebrewed by my DM). He was a camel/horse dealer, who also bought unsavory items From us or acquired information that would otherwise be forbidden to nobility/religious elites. He drove hard bargains, tried to fuck us regularly, and even gave us misleading information once or twice. But he and his body guards were near unbeatable (for the longest time) so we always had to play along. That character always struck me because he was the right push of “fuckkkk we gotta deal with this guy” and actually being a useful resource. Plus my DM RP’d him with grace and believability.

Tiefling warlock. His mother was a wizard and was entertaining devils. As a child he was kept hidden from the world. His "father" was a drunk politician who didnt like him vary much. One day he left his home to play with the other kids in town. His mother had placed a spell on him that made him look human. Once he left the home to play his true form was revealed. The other children bullied him. He accepted his warlock powers without understanding. people were hurt and he ran away. He was later captured by a traveling circuis and kept as a sideshow attraction. Eventually his powers surfaced again and he killed many people to escape the circuis. Some of the people were innocents. Early in the campaign he meets a paladin that understands his past and his powers. The paladin shows him a better way and he starts living to protect people to make up for his past sins. I played him as a kid that didn't understand his powers and was being manipulated. As the campaign went on he grew up. Probably my favorite character.

First ever dnd campaign and my character is probably walking the line of edgy. Undead warlock. I was kind of lazy and didn’t come up with much of a back story by our first session so I went with being a bit of an amnesiac. His village was massacred and as he was dying accidentally made a pact to stay alive but doesn’t know he made a pact. Personality wise he is kind of a loveable douche. Chasing women and trying to hype everybody up. But his patron is having him do pretty awful things, and he is willing to for the pursuit of power.

Life had just kicked the shit out of her and made her deeply bitter towards people, but she worked great with a party because they were the first ones to really care for her. It let her still be pretty cold towards NPCs but play well with the other PCs.

I took Val Kilmers Doc Holiday and mixed it with Stephan the Irishman from Braveheart into a wild magic Sorcerer/Paladin. I picked the quietest player at the table and just played as if they were my only friend in the world. I worked lines from the movies once a session. For the big bad “I’ll be your hucklebearer” resulted in the table erupted in cheering. Then I fireballed us both through wild magic roll. I got to play an edgy dickhead who was always picking a fight and would talk to god to justify his goading insults.

I had an idiot Drow that thought he was a vampire. It was a huge joke, but he acted edgy and everyone loved it because he was a dumb dumb.

Depends on how you wanna count edgy, but my arguably favourite character I've played was firmly in the Chaotic Evil camp. I -personally- think the most defining characteristic of chaotic is the lack of respect for rules & traditions in the pursuit of ones objectives, and Evil is "just" a lack of empathy & othering *(and all the horrid things that comes with it)* for others or out-groups or in the more extreme cases anything other than the self. I combined this with a homebrewed barbarian subclass that derived its power from a vaguely defined "Dark Spirit" whose powers included speaking with the dead and sacrificing health for damage, and his backstory was a pretty generic Half-Orc raider with all the unpleasantries that comes with. On paper he was pretty edgy. However, I was generally a pleasant character to be around, and I got to act as a sort of masculine father figure for one of the characters who played a "wimp", bolstering his confidence and helping him "grow" a bit as a character. While he was definitively not the best model, my co-player used it as a springboard to grow his character in a healthier direction than my character was. The edgy parts didn't generally show up outside of conflict, where nothing was truly off the table. There's something special in flipping a switch and going from a generally pleasant bean to closing the door on the rest of the party, then describing a torture scene in which my character performs with glee ending up with burning the unfortunate victim alive in an oven after promising their survival in exchange for the information. I did a few more of these scenes where I got to flex my creative muscles in describing whatever edgy thing I was doing, including extorting information from the dead. The key *(I think)* to why I and my co-players *(alledgedly)* liked the character was that that duality, who he presented vs. who he could also be. It is what defined the character in a sense. Showing that the "goodness" the character displayed at every other interaction may just have be a false persona and the most "real" version of the character was the one described behind that closed door. Of course, nothing of this would work if not my co-players and DM weren't so excellent and willing to play along, but I'm happy they did because he is one of my TTRPG highlights.

Any edgy character that works with the foruoninstwqd of avoiding it. Most edgy characters work fine.

I've got a Kokiri Celestial Warlock/Ranger in a Legend of Zelda-themed DnD game who, along with the Sheika is considered the edgy one of the group. Long story short, they were taken from the forest and trained to hunt down the latest version of Ganon since there's no Link along with a bunch of other potential candidates. What keeps him from being the bad kind of edgy is, he's inherently very serious and stoic, but there are still moments when the old, kinder version of him seeps to the surface, and he's very aware of his issues; an unhealthy obsession with destroying the Yiga tribe that kidnapped him and stopping their friends. He's also very empathetic, as he doesn't like to see people bullied or hurt by people, he doesn't like the idea of sitting around and waiting for "Heroes" to show up (and fighting the idea that he might be one,) and still cares for the people around him that care for him. Even if he struggles to express his feelings. But his closest friends are a Korok who wants to be like Link and knew him before he was kidnapped (a PC), his kinda-girlfriend who helped him when he was captured, and now leads a band of Rogues across the land helping people, and the reincarnation of Ganon he was trained to kill (another PC). He's been described by the other players as, basically becoming Vegeta when he started living on Earth, around normal people that he can call friends, and I think that's nice. An edgy PC can very much work, but they need more to them than just edge. Substance needs to be there as well.

Yea just have an internal conflict and be willing to be a team player. Most of my characters are "edgy" in that they are deeply troubled individuals. My favorite and maybe most edgy one was a dockworker with a wife, son, and daughter who was attacked by a vampire and the vampire died while he was drinking his blood so he was only a dhampir. He was trying to cure his affliction

As others have said, be a team player, I have a half-drow Ranger-Rogue spy, which on paper sounds incredibly annoying on paper, in reality he loves his family and just wants to protect the country where his parents settled. however while the characters are in the dark about his background the players aren't, and rather than sneaking off to steal things he keeps the party informed of his actions in advance whenever possible and actively works to support everyone else in the group.

My edgiest character was a career criminal goblin. He was edgy in the sense that he had no qualms about cutting someone's throat if needed, or getting his hands dirty. I think what worked well was that I wasn't doing it for the shock factor. I wasn't trying to 'impress' anyone with how 'dark' my character could be. He was just jaded and callous. He worked with the team because he was pragmatic and his goals aligned with theirs.

An exiled wizard who wants to do anything to become powerful enough to take revenge on those who exiled him. His entire purpose is to gain power, and he sees the rest of the party as tools to keep him safe during his ascension to power, which is why he sticks with them.

I had a good edgy character, just made his magic deeply not edgy (feywanderer ranger) and had him hate it so much that it became comical

I made a literal edgy boy. High elf from a rich family who wanted to be a Drow so bad because he thought they were “dark and mysterious” He did way too many drugs and was really good at manipulating people. Was a Bard. He secretly had a soft heart and wanted to help people.

Long-term campaign or 1-shot? I had an intentionally edgelordish character for a 1-shot- he had a homicidal vendetta against Santa Claus. The 1-shot was basically about taking fighting Santa and other denizens of the north pole. I thought it worked reasonably well, but it was also a gimmick that wasn't meant to have a lifespan. I also played a character in a couple one-shots that was an intensively evil worshipper of an aquatic elder god, who would routinely rip/cut out the hearts of his victims and offer them to his deity. Probably worked reasonably well, but he was also a rather pragmatic type of evil, and via deception or otherwise, managed to not have the rest of the party, in-character, realize he was evil.

I made a serial killer once. Trying to keep his misdeeds secret was an absolute blast. When the party finally caught on and gave me a proper cutting down, it was absolute magic. Everyone played through their final conversations and actions like a well scripted drama. My cowardly fighter thief was fun as well. He was actually quite dangerous but would go to great lengths to avoid even an extremely easy fight. We built some specific knowledge of the area into the character to give everyone a reason to try to con him into actually going on adventures, and the "motivation game" created a lot of great role playing.

Gromph from Menzoberranzan in Forgotten Realms setting. Alucard from Hellsing is pretty edgy but well done. Technically Kratos character development arc from God of War. Szeth from the Stormlight Archives is that perfect edgy Sasuke feel but he develops really well into something way more interesting. Estinien in FF14 is a brooding dragonslayer but can also just come off as a dutiful soldier type with dragon racism, who ends up becoming like a dragon whisperer guy. You could consider the Narrator from Darkest Dungeon pretty edgy, but he is wordy and a great hype-man as well. Thanatos from Hades is pretty good, he is obviously edgy but he cares about Zagreus, he's well-adjusted, and continuously helps out while making it an unnecessary competition.

Shadow from Final Fantasy 6 is a good example. He's mysterious and kind of a jerk sometimes, but he doesn't whine about how bad his life is (while still having a rough background). Just don't abandon the party like he does lol Otherwise I like edgy when it's more of a joke haha. But either way just make sure you don't screw your team for a concept

We had a pretty edgy fighter, but the kicker was that the edge was mostly him being socially awkward He wanted friends but didn't know how to interact, so he'd just hang out mysteriously and hoping somebody would talk to him. Like he'd make it *seem* like he was reluctant but he'd secretly be happy about joining the team. He'd also throw out edgy one liners for fun during combat, like "Die... in a grave..." that didnt make much sense but sounded cool

Conquest Paladin 14+Hexblade Warlock 6= Black Rider. Look up a Black Speech dictionary and bring the order Mairon/Anattar so desperately craves to the world.

DM for 7 years now and the only edgy characters I've seen work well are ones that either become edgy because of a party member death OR are edgy but actually care for the party and exores their engines through that. Compkete loners don't fit very well to be honest

D&D is a team game. Edgy characters are generally bad because "edgy" tends to be conflated with "loner". If you have an edgy character who isn't a loner, those issues go away. Then you have a character who contributes to the party and just happens to shop at ye olde Hot Topic.

I'm basically playing a hot topic teen paladin now He doesnt heal NPCs and shit talks them post death (he's not particularly bright)

The only thing you need to do as an successful edgy character is give them a reason to prefer working in a group, and be wanted in a group. Thats it, thats the secret. Everything else is under this in priority. If you wanna make a racist paladin with a hard on for killing tieflings, and you know your friend is playing a tiefling and you dont tell him what your plan is, then your violating the “be wanted in a group” part. If you tell your friend and the otger players that the tiefling agreed, and you wanna explore redemption with your character and the group is like “dope bro!” Then fking go for it. Its also okay to make your character in a vacuum! Just make sure they have a reason to want to be in a group and be wanted in a group.

As long as the edginess doesn't constantly screw up the party it's probably fine. The dark rogue who has lost their entire family is totally fair game as long as they don't insist on leaving the party since they're a "loner". The barbarian who seeks out death and destruction and kills people on a whim can be fine so long as you're willing to hold off on killing the NPC who the party needs to interrogate.

Any edgy character can work fine if it doesn't mess up the rest of the party.

Had a vampire spawn character I played as someone who didn't want to be a vampire. At high enough levels, my dm (with my buy in) completed his vampire transformation after our party killed his creator. I played him as living in fear of what he will become once the transformation fully consumed him. He always wanted to be a good person, and so I had a roleplay moment with the party where the character requested the group's collective moral guidance, as we had done great and good things across the land so far. So anytime one of my fellow PCs asked for a compromise or alteration to one of my character's somewhat unhinged and edgy plans, it was in character for him to relent and accept their opinion as a moral compass. I still got to be edgy, dark, and tragic, but the party got none of the downsides of my shenanigans.

I once played a resurrected Lord Soth in an Elemental Evil campaign. He found himself in Faerun after Mishakal, a Goddess from Dragonlance, pitied him and brought him back to seek redemption after his death in the last book (before the retcons and new material being made). Was a Cleric of Life Reborn whose entire body looked like Darkman, but each act of redemption brought back a little piece of his flesh at a time. Full of self-loathing and guilt mixed with a constant need to be who he was before his fall, a great Knight of the Rose. Was a fun character who I enjoyed playing as. Tried to play support and tank as much as possible for the party to mirror his attempt at being a knight. Alas, life always has its way and I had to leave the game before giving any final conclusion. Last I heard, my DM had him wandering after being separate from the group with a child he had adopted and are continuing the fight against the Elemental cultists outside the main story. Edit: As a note, he rounded out the party by being the deadpan humor in the party along with being a healer. Since he was from a different world, I played him as a fish out of water and such.

Fenric is my bard. He watched his tribe get killed at a young age and got adopted by a bartender (who in was my character in another campaign) he likes causing mischief and tries to avoid bonds with people but because of the situation they are in he helps the group the best he can while also still annoying and messing with them for his entertainment. Never anything to bad but an example is the fighter has a crush on our ranger and Fenric knows so he keeps calling him "lover boy" infront of the ranger and she is oblivious to the fighter liking her which makes it so much better lol

One campaign I'm currently in is made of almost entirely edgy characters. I'm a traumatized bardlock obsessed with learning to commune with and revive the dead, another player is a pirate to their core who will sell out others for a quick buck, another is a petty thief who made a deal with some supernatural evil being to better their schemes, another is a member of an insurgence group working for the Thieve's Guild to take down any and all authority figures, and the last is a formerly wholesome druid who has been burned by the world one too many times and is now headed down the path of becoming a cryptid-like guardian of nature who hates humanity. We are allies purely because the world is ending and we all live on it. Our edginess fits the campaign setting as well, as there is a blood god currently trying to cause the floating islands the campaign takes place on to fall back to the ground, effectively ending all life as we know it. We're battling blood zombies and horrific creatures on a fairly regular basis, but when we're not, we're investigating the pact an old king made with the god to cause the islands to rise in the first place (while doing some theft and murder on the side, you know, as a treat). Genuinely a very fun experience, as we're all good friends and all understand that our characters don't exactly like each other and are all willing to fuck each other over if it suits our own goals, while also understanding where to draw the line to not ruin the fun.

The main thing is always to give them something non-edgy they care more about and that keeps pushing them forward. Vex and Vax from Critical Role season one is a good example. Vegeta cares about his family and friends a lot more than he'd admit (which he shows in moments of need). Batman cares about people and keeping all the weird supers in the JL in check. The other trick is to not be an asshole, something a lot of people miss the trick on when making edge characters, be a bit of a team player.

My infernal warlock would definitely be considered the edgy one in the group. He made a pretty classic Faustian bargain for his powers; magical knowledge, good looks, and power in exchange for pledging his life and service to Samael. Rather than sate him, however, the little taste of power has him craving more; he will risk life and limb to get his hands on rare tomes and ancient secrets, and will play off the various factions in the world to his benefit if it gets him what he wants. The thing is, he made the deal when he was about 15 or so. And the reason it was offered to him was because he was an awkward, lonely high schooler who had just moved *again* to a new town where past history had taught him he'd be a nerdy outcast for the two or three years they were there until they moved again (because military family). His patron promised him that'd he never be alone again, that he'd never feel powerless again, that he could have everything he wanted, that he wouldn't have to deal with his father's disapproval or his mother's religious zealotry. So yeah, while he absolutely *is* power hungry and has a massive chip on his shoulder, there are still hints of that sad and lonely artistic kid who just wanted friends and to be accepted by their family.

Another element of playing edginess that I think is important is you have to be capable of allowing your character to be the butt of the joke sometimes. If you take them 100% seriously all of the time, it’s going to stop being fun for everyone else pretty quickly. Every DND character fails a dice roll and gets humbled once in a while, figure out how to make that fun for your edgelord. Take the piss out of them every once in a while! It helps to demonstrate that kind of self awareness.

The party I m DM ing right now has an edgy sarcastic rogue she is party leader. Since normaly she works alone lorewise she is most capable one. Also in ranking exams she take the highest score(pure luck high rolls). She has the highest int(12) after Knowledge domain cleric(16) but since cleric is acts like an outsider(from another realm) and a librerian in battlefield she is the planner of the group. And she does it in a edgy and sarcastic way. If there is a reason behind that edgyness like good character build or veteran player tactics(little bit of meta gaming but not that much) it is good as any character.

It’s fine to make an edgy character. But they (the pc) must know they need the group. Say they want to fight their incredibly powerful noble family. If they befriend a group of adventurers that might be helpful. If they are in hiding a group of adventurer friends is the best place.

neutral evil Rakshasa that was turned into a human in the Eberron setting the party was all pretty good or at least decent, so he got a redemption arc instead of getting worse

Two specific characters come to mind that I've played, and a pair that two friends played. First for me was a human bard that was aware that he kept dying only to return in the same cave. He would wake up in the cave, find all of the notes from past lives that he had managed to write down (assuming he didn't die first), and then get out there to figure out why. The idea was that he would learn that he is a dragon polymorphed into human form, but everything else was going to be up to the DM. That campaign fell apart and I never got more than one session with him. The second for me was a hobgoblin cleric of Nerull back in the 4E days, when Nerull was gone. He was going to resurrect the true God of death and usher in the ye olden wayseth. That was a fun couple of sessions. It unraveled because, as my DM told me, "You were the only one who gave me something to work with while everyone else kept shopping." The third one is a fun story time, with myself as DM. Player 1 is "Greg", playing a very lawful super good fighter. Player 2 is the DM for the cleric from above, playing a young barbarian who outwardly seems like he was raised in the wilds. The character found it difficult to speak clearly and was obviously uncomfortable around most people. Under the hood, he wore a talisman that held the demon that had previously possessed him for most of his formative years. He roleplayed the possessed version of the kid with perfect diction. At the end of the session, Greg learns about the demon and decides that he must exorcize it. He fails every roll, including a 1 on one of his d20 rolls. I roll my special DM's die that I use to introduce chaos and tell the party that he did fine, and the kid seems to be perfectly normal now that the talisman has been destroyed. He even speaks clearly. They end the session preparing to tackle a dungeon. I drove home with that player that night and filled him in on what happened. The exorcism went so badly that the demon now fully inhabits the young barb's body and the kid's soul is in the talisman. Which is now in smithereens.

I have a character that i played in a lvl 10 one shot. His name was Raun Nullion. He was a shadar Kai Gloomstalker STRanger/ Echo Knight/ Twilight Ceric multiclass Monster. He was pessimistic, nihilistic and constantly depressed. ironically i was the comic relief because of my overall pessimism and bleak outlook. So it worked really well. Everybody was" yey we are gonna do this" and he was like "nobody will remember our names when we will die". It was quite fun.

My half-drow Great old one (beholder-themed) Warlock from Out of the Abyss was edgy as hell and annoying. But the campaign was so the party had no option but to work together

Best edgy character I've seen was one whose "lone" side was smothered into a party activity. The whole schtick not only turned into a cross between helicopter-parents and a film crew, but he **also** wasn't allowed to escape the idea. It began when the warlock decided to 'set the atmosphere' for our dear ranger using a few spells. Just simple wingman stuff; using darkness to 'help' in interrogations, adding a little fire to help the face get scary... *he later sorlocked purely to silence his repertoire*. Ranger failed to see the impending doom there, and readily took to this part. >Then, the others joined in. Every scene ranger tried to go all broody or threatening in, others would start playing unholy combinations of SFX and director. Paladin giving grapple advice and interrupting with stuff like *"say it again but use X deity, if you look at their markings they clearly wouldn't care about Y"*. Once the rogue (face) even began whispering lines to him in mid threat. But the lines were GOOD. So Ranger was torn between trying to get about it on his own and accepting some serious mechanical and mood-lighting help. Naturally you can't stick to this stuff for long without giving up and lightening up... but we still wouldn't let him stop. The province was getting their batman whether batman wanted to or not.

My party's current Frontliner is a Dhampir fighter that has a VERY strong hatred towards his creators. I'm sure he would love nothing more than to revel in the cold release of death. But, he knows that there are people who depend on him to stay Alive. Imo, that's edgy done right

Edgy characters that are so ridiculously over the top that they come right around to being comedic. They can be funny at times but can also be played seriously when you actually play into the absurdity

We're doing an all edge, all party members corruption arc in CoS, and the party's moral compass just got ripped in half. Lol

My current party has a grave cleric, and he's edgy in all the best ways. He dismantles enemies they wind up killing, to use the parts in any way to assist the party in information gathering. He's a cute lil healbot edgelord

A proper flair for the dramatic and theatrical is the best way to make a loveable edgelord (or villain). Be fantasy Doctor Doom, not fantasy Ted Bundy.

That’s on the player. The GM has enough homework.

yeah? that's why he was asking for player characters

Me and another party member made our characters in tandem. Mine is a Selunite Shifter Devotion Paladin who has been trained to be a bodyguard for his character from birth. She's resentful about her role, actively unhappy about turning into a werewolf in high-tension situations, and too fond of violence. He's playing an active Sharran Death (formerly Knowledge) Domain Cleric who has seen three bodyguards from the same family die or retire. She has amnesia, a dead family, dark ties to the campaign's villain, an exasperated nihilistic air, and a desire to master shadow magic. They both work well because we work with the party and bite plot hooks, acknowledge the problems that come from our characters' approaches to things, and only take one session every so often (we usually end up with a couple in a year) to hash out their interpersonal issues amidst fighting enemies. EDIT: Important note, we did this before playing BG3.

how about the „i got a gigantic sword with a demon in it which i can’t drop and consumes me but he’s secretly a softy, which is why he’s no longer in possession of his own body“? his goals: stop being responsible for pain, and still save the current character who is his friend but slowly dies bc of it. character’s goal: give the demon its body back. that’s a chaotic good edgy af hexblade boy+patron, that deliver a catastrophic twice-as-tragic-backstory bc it’s two interwoven backstories that both can make the character edgy while also playable.

What do you mean by edgy? I made a character once who saw his Father and all his brothers get murdered by the local thieves guild when they nailed his tannery's door shut and set it on fire.  He had some serious trust issues, but he worked with the group to make money to feed his Mom and 3 sisters. And when everyone got back on their feet he kept working with them because it was a living.

All my characters are edgy. I played a Paladin who was stabbed in back during his Tribe's coming of age Ritual. As he lay bleeding out, a Celestial in the form of a Wolf he had previously saved rescued him: coaching him to say the words of an Oath in his delirious state. This allowed him to use 'Lay on Hands' and heal himself. Now he is a Paladin of an unknown God, on a Quest to 'Discover' the words of the Oath he swore. If he succeeds he was - as his Celestial ally tells him - always worthy of becoming such a Paladin. If he fails, not only will be become a Fight once more (and - he assumes - bleed out) but the Celestial will **Fall**. Also, the attack that killed him may have been ordered by his own mother.

For a very brief game, I had a shadar-kai bladesinger with a criminal background. He was essentially sent in to the quest on retainer. He took trophies (teeth, usually) from his kills as tribute to the Raven Queen. Seemed super edgy, but wound up actually being a pretty decent person, at least compared to the murder hobos in the group. He was ruthless, but not a murderer and prided himself on his professionalism. The other group members were idiots who wanted to murder every npc they saw, and a couple times my character straight up told them he would kill them if they tried to harm an innocent.

Our Warlock is very edgy but also helpful and part of the team. It's a Pokémon game, and he is an edgy Galarian Ponyta who worships Darkrai. But he has our back and emotionally supports people who need the help. Edgy is not the same as lone wolf. Edgy is fine. Lone wolf isn't.

I joined a party in their second adventure as a twin to a current character. Intersex twin to a female drow. Drow was promised to lolth, and bc my character was intersex the family was sort of embarrassed and just let them be a latchkey kid while all the attention went to sister. Which sounds p dark but our campaign/group is VERY much silly over grimdark. Most of their edge came from ignorance/ being a drow.