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.

 

[Waller]

Wow! Deep breath my man. Also, not sure your economic breakdown holds up to scrutiny honestly.

You understand the principal of 'what the market bears' right? If this is overpriced, no one will buy it, and the product will disappear under the waves. I think you do... you just have another axe to grind, and this is your way of showing everyone that axe.

Justifying your position with some rage and some half-baked 'math'... if you think that's achieving something, all power to you. I don't think it is though.

Not saying you don't have an argument... but this is a, perhaps cathartic in the moment, but largely ineffectual way of getting your point across.

(a) Not a man last time I checked.

(c) This was a reply to a specific comment.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

And I said that wasn't true. Because counterexamples.

It’s not 7 pages though. I have the revised version and it is 40 pages, 15 pieces of color art by 4 artists, a couple pages of fiction, a couple items, a few spells, 5 npc retainers, the class takes 22 pages of it.

 

[DEFCON 1]

You did. You said the price was because we were "paying for all the playtesting and iterations".

And I said that wasn't true. Because counterexamples.

Well, that was 11 days ago. We both have probably moved on with our lives, yes?

 

[Weiley31]

My main gripe is that it doesn't seem to have been written with the 2024

IIRC, the updated Illrigger was released/updated BEFORE the updated announcement/changes to 5E 2024 were established/UA'ed.

It's still all backwards compatible so it's not the end of the world.

 

[Weiley31]

Well, that was 11 days ago. We both have probably moved on with our lives, yes?

This is ENworld. Nobody on here moves on until AFTER the Hunger Games style Death Match between posters.

Remember: the one who is just is the one still left standing at the very end.

 

[gnarlygninja]

Is there anyone here who has experience playing the class or having them at their table?

I have an Illrigger a few times, although never very long, because with one exception any time I convince someone to let me play one the game seems doomed to abruptly end. From a mechanics standpoint they've always been a blast for me, especially comparing them to other martial classes. Curse of Strahd was a little frustrating with so many enemies being resistant to necrotic damage but the revised Illrigger can do fire or necrotic damage with seals.

The biggest hurdle with the class is one I see people have brought up here, that they're soft coded as evil. I really enjoy the aesthetics and flavor of the class but it has caused issues in every group I've tried to play one in. I've had to lobby the DM each time and even after that had to deal with how far apart my understanding of what it means to be an evil character is from the other players', which in the one long running campaign I played one in became such a headache I eventually switched characters. Obviously how much of a problem this is comes down to your group and how well you know them, but I can definitely understand someone not being willing to pay fifteen bucks for something they might never be able to use. I don't regret buying it, because I got my money's worth just from reading it and being inspired by it, but your mileage may vary. Also worth noting it was only $6.66 when I bought it.

 

[Shardstone]

When I mean It's got its own little mini spells and a invocation system. I mean that it actually doesn't use the same skills in and vacations as the Warlock which is shared in the system.

The The first version of the elrigger came with a lot of totally new stuff that was specifically for it. I don't know how the revised one looks. But if it's like the original then it is an entirely new subsystem to worry about.

And that is the problem is not about it being complicated it's that now you have another subsystem and not even a simple subsystem like the runes in the runeknight or the maneuvers in a battle master (which were just subclass subsystems and thus less mechanical load)

The Warlock is still mostly casting spells that you as the DM already understood and know how they interact with other stuff. And many invocations are just spells too. And the main gimmick Eldritch Blast is also a spell So you are mostly just running a wacky wizard.

But the illrigger in order to justify itself in the original MCDM book and now the $15 addition to D&DB has a bunch of unique stuff (TBF I haven't read the revised illriger just the old busted one) that you can't find anywhere which to justify the price.

I mean the players (I am guessing) who would want to play, able to run, and willing to track an illrigger are likely the type of player who would make you really want to dive delve into the illrigger's information as a DM.


Fluffwise it's not huge because Warlocks have Patron baggage. But it still is baggage that some DMs might not want to deal with.

Not as much as the mechanics by a long shot.

dude if you have not read the new one stop pretending like you have