Are Player Characters Exceptional?

[*Ceremorph]

A good point, coyote. And really you come down to the differentiation between "Evil" and "Over-the-top Evil" (aka Chaotic Stupid). Sure, when someone says "evil" of course you wind up thinking of your Saurons and Valdemorts and Blofeld stroking his cat, the evil portrayed as a desire to destroy or rule the world. But evil can not only be charismatic, it can also be quite pleasant. Hannibal Lecter is evil, but (especially in the Hopkins portrayal) is also intelligent, witty, and has dozens of friends (only some of whom he eats) before he winds up getting caught... but the willingness to kill (and eat) people who he finds lack manners proves that he's evil.

I've played two evil characters on this server, and both of them were nice enough to be around. Only problem was that Rhethys was a Thrall of Graz'zt (CE simply by becoming such, not to mention all the demons and devils she summoned), while Huntress was a bit of a party girl (whoo, I'm drunk, watch me shoot the hat off that orc, hey let's get naked!) who also just happened to happily take bounty hunter jobs from beings of the lower planes, to the obvious consternation (and damnation) of her targets. Both evil, but neither "cackle while the world burns" evil... just NE because of her total amorality when it came to her job, even while being sociable and outgoing.

[*Miraie]

A stray thought here, but.. would a paladin be doing an evil deed if they killed an evil person?

Immediate gain: the evil person is gone and there are less evil people around.
Metaphysical loss: the forces of evil grow stronger (as their petitioner soul goes where it should).
(The implication being that if you were able to redeem the evil person instead, you'd make your immediate surroundings safer while also making the forces of good, or at least not-evil, stronger.)

I also have a massive problem with paladins killing people simply because they are evil, but that is a flaw within the system more than anything else. If it pings, I smites. Evil-dar ho!

[*Ceremorph]

Lore nerd alert: Graz'zt was never an archdevil. He's (according to "ancient texts") the son of Pale Night, so at least half obyrith.

[*Brindas]

Lore nerd alert: Graz'zt was never an archdevil. He's (according to "ancient texts") the son of Pale Night, so at least half obyrith.

Yeah, that was 4e lore where he was an archdevil who went into the Abyss and got corrupted.

[*cryptc]

Another example of appearance not changing depending on alignment is the very fun picture of a risen Babau in an upper plane together with two celestials, looked pretty out of place there ;) (from the Planescape Fiends book I believe)