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.

 

[Distracted DM]

Is it a copyright/trademark/whatever issue, maybe? Because yeah, "demon knight" is right there. "Illrigger" sounds like something a 13 year old would come up with.

Are there better names? Depends on who you ask. It was the first real DND character Colville played iirc, and it stuck with him enough that he saw it made into a full class- he definitely thought the name sounded cool enough to keep

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Are there better names? Depends on who you ask. It was the first real DND character Colville played iirc, and it stuck with him enough that he saw it made into a full class- he definitely thought the name sounded cool enough to keep

Have you seen any of his movie or book reviews?

He has a lot of great thoughts about RPGs, but his aesthetic preferences are highly suspect.

 

[Distracted DM]

Have you seen any of his movie or book reviews?

He has a lot of great thoughts about RPGs, but his aesthetic preferences are highly suspect.

I have! Matter of taste

 

[Minigiant]

I just don't see it, sorry. You're never dealing with all twelve classes at once in 5E, and the Illrigger, even the "busted" one wasn't that complicated or challenging to deal with. Again, the Artificer is a good comparison - Illriggers are, imho, less different from other D&D classes, and not as badly balanced either (at least the Revised one isn't), I'd say there were kind of mid-range balance-wise, and they have a lot of stuff which prevents them being optimized to the degree that some classes can be.

The Artificer still mostly draws from the existing magic spells and magic items subsystems. You as the DM likely already understand those.

The Revised Illrigger, even if it is mostly balanced, would still come with its 2-3 additional subsystems. Some DMs might have a higher bar of familiarity with additional subsystems than others and not be willing to incorporate them with their own core mix of systems.

I mean I don't think many DMs would allow a player to be a 3PP class in a 1PP game without knowing how the class ticks.

 

[Paragon Lost]

The picture kinda reminds me of my ESO necromancer. heh.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

It is a very important step. It means we are going to see more new classes by 3PPs. I guess the beastheart class could be the next step. My doubt is if the talent class is added, what will happen with the psionic mystic from AU playtest?

 

[mamba]

My doubt is if the talent class is added, what will happen with the psionic mystic from AU playtest?

nothing, it’s not like they did anything with it but bury it and add psionics to subclasses.

So there is room for the Talent, it’s not like classes cannot overlap (Wizard / Sorcerer, …)

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It is a very important step. It means we are going to see more new classes by 3PPs. I guess the beastheart class could be the next step. My doubt is if the talent class is added, what will happen with the psionic mystic from AU playtest?

Same thing as everything in UA that doesn't score over 75% popularity. It goes in the bin.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The Revised Illrigger, even if it is mostly balanced, would still come with its 2-3 additional subsystems. Some DMs might have a higher bar of familiarity with additional subsystems than others and not be willing to incorporate them with their own core mix of systems.

Sure, but again I don't think it's even as complicated as an Artificer is, even accounting for the fact that Artificers use existing spells/items (albeit often in odd ways).

I mean I don't think many DMs would allow a player to be a 3PP class in a 1PP game without knowing how the class ticks.

Sure, and many are afraid of 3PP classes/subclasses per se, and not without reason, because most 3PP classes are much, much worse balance-wise (in either direction, sometimes both at once!) than WotC's own 5E classes/subclasses (something which wasn't true in say, 3.XE). Obviously I'd recommend any DM familiarize themselves with any classes/subclasses they're allowing, but I think that's true with WotC ones too. I don't think most DMs actually have a good idea how every official class/subclass in 5E works, even if they think they do. Revised Illrigger has some cute tricks, but they use 5E's action economy pretty appropriately, which keeps a lid on them.

 

[WanderingMystic]

I am hoping that we might see Dungeon Dude's Apothecary class, I would also love to see Striling Vermin's Pugilist class but I don't remember his name being one of the creators who they were working with at least to start off with.