D&D Beyond Adds Illrigger Class from MCDM

D&D Beyond has added the Illrigger class from MCDM, marking only the second time that the service has added a third party class made for D&D 5th edition. This week, D&D Beyond launched support for the Illrigger, an elite servant of hell with a versatile number of combat options. MCDM originally released the Illrigger class back in 2021 and revised the class in 2023. Both were made for 5th Edition rules and do not incorporate rules from the 2024 Core Rulebook updates.

The illrigger is a primarily martial class that can place seals on their enemy and burn them to deal additional damage. As agents of hell, illriggers are generally evil-aligned characters, but players aren't limited to a specific alignment. The illrigger ruleset on D&D Beyond comes with 5 different subclasses, as well as 8 new spells, and 2 new magic items.

Other than the illrigger, D&D Beyond also supports the Blood Hunter, a 5E class originally designed by Matt Mercer and used in Critical Role. While the Blood Hunter was released for free, the illrigger costs $14.99 on D&D Beyond.

 

[dave2008]

It does seem so.

However MCDM pays artists and writers among the highest in the industry. I’m told noticeably higher than the Seattle company. Plus they have a team of paid playtesters. Which goes into that stick price.

Possibly, but historically WotC has been the highest paying for artists and writers for some time. Things change of course.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Possibly, but historically WotC has been the highest paying for artists and writers for some time. Things change of course.

How far back historically are we talking here? Because that hasn't been the chatter about them for the past few years.

 

[Parmandur]

Possibly, but historically WotC has been the highest paying for artists and writers for some time. Things change of course.

Not that I doubt that MCDM is paying very well themselves.

 

[dave2008]

How far back historically are we talking here? Because that hasn't been the chatter about them for the past few years.

Time is strange, it feels recent, but it could have been 5+/- years. However, definitely since 5e and PF2. IIRC, there was an article on here about writing rates and at the time WotC was about 3x the industry average.

EDIT: The article was from last year: What are Current Freelance Rates in TTRPG

And I was wrong, it was 2x the industry average.

 

[Distracted DM]

Not sure about thst: as I understand it, WotC is the highest pay in tabletop, particularly for artists.

It's from a year or two back, but there was chatter at the time that MCDM paid freelancers almost double what WotC did. It's the Internet ofc so take it as you will.

 

[Minigiant]

According to what I read on the Internet, WOTC and MCDM paid among the highest for writers and artists in fantasy. However many think WOTC could afford to pay even more but they don't.

The big companies and companies who see themselves as big who can afford it pay the most. But the small guys can't afford to pay a lot without having a tiny staff or crowdfunding. Hence the AI temptation.

 

[Parmandur]

It's from a year or two back, but there was chatter at the time that MCDM paid freelancers almost double what WotC did. It's the Internet ofc so take it as you will.

Yeah, I believe that MCDM pays well, poaaivly aiming to meet industry leader rates. Paying well is actually one of WotC main virtues, though, so given the difference in scale I tend to be skeptical thst MCDM pays twice as well as the top of the industry.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

This feels like it should be as simple as a type of Feat.

That's exactly what everyone said to Beyond in 2020 when Theros came out - "Hey Beyond could you please add the content we've paid for as Feats so we can use it?". Beyond's response, which they repeated a number of times was "We're working on a new way to add content, and we will add the Supernatural Gifts soon, so we refuse to put them as Feats, because you can wait a few months!". Eventually in 2021 they got down to saying Supernatural Gifts were only a month or two away. They even clearly got the "new way to add content", because they added OTHER stuff that they said required it, but Supernatural Gifts remained pending. Then Ravenloft came out, the same issue occurred, and Beyond were all "Oh we'll have a way to add them soon! No we refuse to let you have them as Feats until then!". And of course still nothing has happened to this day, and now they just don't talk about it.

It's particularly silly now given if WotC did something like Gifts post-2024, they'd clearly be L1-only Feats.

 

[Parmandur]

Time is strange, it feels recent, but it could have been 5+/- years. However, definitely since 5e and PF2. IIRC, there was an article on hear about writing rates and at the time WotC was about 3x the industry average.

EDIT: The article was from last year: What are Current Freelance Rates in TTRPG

And I was wrong, it was 2x the industry average.

It holds true more recently, too: just last year, I saw an exchange on Twitter where someone said WotC doesn't pay well, and a MtG artist said no, WotC pays top dollar. Not D&D side, but...I have never heard anyone complain about WotC payscale. Some contractors were upset that they were tempoeary employees here and there, lame corporate layoffs...but never that WotC didn't pay well. So many talented folks still work with AotC in spite of all the shenanigans, and "theyvpaybwell" is a big part of that.

 

[dave2008]

It's from a year or two back, but there was chatter at the time that MCDM paid freelancers almost double what WotC did. It's the Internet ofc so take it as you will.

According to Morrus' story (linked above from last year) WotC pays about double the average. So if MCDM was 2x that they would be paying 4x the average?! I guess I find that a bit hard to believe, but I don't have any insider info except trying to commission an artist the WotC uses and a writer EnWorld uses.