So, I was reading Pathfinder's Horror Adventures yesterday and I got to the part with templates for characters and creatures. And, being weird, I tried applying them to possible PC concepts. And I got...

... Apostle Kyton as a PC.

What do you think, is it even doable? Such a character would not only be lawful evil, but a half-mad mortal-demon hybrid who literally feeds on pain. Is it possible to make any kind of interesting stories with such a PC? Or is such a character only an antagonist material?

Playing an evil protagonist isn't unheard of, though it can be challenging.  This character might make a good protagonist if they need to feed on pain, but don't want to.  Much like a reluctant vampire.

(admittedly, I'm not familiar with the character)

Hi there, nuric! :)

A bit of info: kytons are "chain devils", a race of lawful evil outsiders who really like to torture people. Just like the Cenobites from Hellraiser movies... :D There are a few types of them. As for apostle kytons, they are mortal beings who end up turned into kytons after being tortured by one.

Rules-wise, "apostle kyton" is a template, so - if I understand PF / DnD 3. rules correctly - you could take a normal PC and turn him / her into such a creature. It's tempting, but the LE aligmnent seems to be hardwired into the template. Also, kytons as a whole really do believe that torturing innocents is the way to go. So, I wonder if such a character would do anything else aside from travelling around and killing people gruesomely :)

I've played werewolf and vampire characters who went in depth into torturing people: one for "good" reasons, and one for "bad", so it can be done, if you have a GM and co-players who can roll with the concept.

I generally do agree with the "murder hobo" description of player characters in general, so a character who 'just travels around killing people gruesomely' doesn't actually strike me as all that different from the average Paladin.  It just depends on who you consider `people'.

Now, games focused on evil PCs crop up periodically - so there's clearly a place for them, and it sounds like he'd fit right in there.  If you're curious about how a character like that could work in a more traditional campaign - well, Lawful Evil tends to play better with others than any other kind of Evil.  One of my more carefully thought-out concepts was a Cleric of Incabulos in a Temple of Elemental Evil campaign -- she never pretended to be anything she wasn't, but she understood that she was, you know, outnumbered, and the one who asked to work with them.  So she absolutely had her Evil perspective on things, but she was a good team player.

Reading some of the wikis on Kyton... yeah, I can see a couple of ways they could work.  Being Lawful, they might just agree that they're subject to the Laws of whatever kingdom they call home - laws that probably prohibit murdering `people', but which probably have big loopholes for races they consider `monsters', or people who have shown themselves to be `bandits', or... whatever.  Or maybe they just find it interesting to find the ways to sate their needs within that structure.  Or maybe they've worked out that a group of adventurers is the best way to find and defeat the kinds of stronger creatures they want to replace bits of themselves with -- even if it means ignoring lesser opportunities along the way.

In reply to Varsovian (msg # 3):

*smiles*  Hello again, Varsovian.   Yes, much like the other posters, having an evil creature as a PC is possible, but you have to give them something to do.  Just letting a creature like that loose to wander about with nothing to do but torture people wouldn't make sense, but if you can make them part of a larger plot, like an invasion from a neighboring kingdom, or another plane, or perhaps part of a "hit squad" to attack worse monsters, is a good way to put them in a more acceptable role

We had a character with a similar (though mundane, as it was a contemporary setting) concept, a sadistic ex-Intelligence torturer called the Doktor. He fit in just fine thanks to his extreme skill in trauma medicine, since being a torturer means keeping your "subjects" alive when they really shouldn't, or want to, continue breathing.

You'd just need to find a party that can look past the reason you have those skills and benefit from them.

Okay, thanks :) You gave me some interesting ideas...

And what would you do with such a character, if that was supposed to be a solo game?