A Lawful Evil character establishes and upholds the laws and systems that a Lawful Good character may, but not out of any desire to do good. They follow the law because the law suits them and their desires, and they will exploit these rules in their best interest while using them to exploit and oppress others. A Lawful Evil character may care about honor, tradition, and loyalty, but not about freedom, or life; they lack compassion and mercy. Many Lawful Evil characters are honorable enough to be more anti-villains than straight villains.

While many Lawful Evil characters have no real attachment to the law and only manipulate the system as a mean to their selfish and/or malicious ends, others uphold the law as an ideal, believing that order is what is important; over goodness, over compassion, over freedom, over life. This type of Lawful Evil character is often convinced they are righteous and their tyranny justified.