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.

 

[Minigiant]

The small guys also don't have the "but what about the shareholders" messages being lobbed at them constantly which allows them to, for instance, produce vastly higher quality physical books quite often.

They crowdfund.

The tiny indies can't afford to pay well if they don't crowdfund for a ton.

The mid size and big indies typically have the experience and fanbase to guarantee the profits to pay well. But the little guys are crapshooting if they don't have a big backer, a big base from other media popularity, or take major shortcuts .

 

[Minigiant]

Back to the illrigger class.

The Illrigger has enough unique crunchy and fluffy parts to ensure value in purchasing it as a player for fifteen bucks.

BUT

It has enough unique crunchy and fluffy but that might exhaust a DM and have them toss the banhammer just to have less to deal with mentally.

 

[Distracted DM]

Back to the illrigger class.

The Illrigger has enough unique crunchy and fluffy parts to ensure value in purchasing it as a player for fifteen bucks.

BUT

It has enough unique crunchy and fluffy but that might exhaust a DM and have them toss the banhammer just to have less to deal with mentally.

Is it stuff that the player could keep track of? The answer to the complaints about the new weapon masteries putting more work on the GM is to have players track their debuffs etc. Can it be done with the Illrigger as well?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

They crowdfund.

A lot of them do, yes, but not always.

As far as I know, Andrew Kolb's books aren't crowdfunded, for instance. People who only buy WotC books' brains would break if they got something as deluxe as Neverland, Oz or Wonderland for a lower cost than their usual books.

I think the big issue is that Hasbro takes a cut off the top of WotC profits, both to fund other stuff and to be as lean as reasonably possible, so that they can maximize shareholder value.

 

[Minigiant]

Is it stuff that the player could keep track of? The answer to the complaints about the new weapon masteries putting more work on the GM is to have players track their debuffs etc. Can it be done with the Illrigger as well?

Maybe maybe not.

But part of the whole Weapon Mastery issue is handled by the fact that many of the masteries are simple or don't have tracking.

Illrigger seals are mini spells slots.

It's like having a whole nother Warlocky but not Warlock class to worry about. It's got mini spells and mini feats like almost Invocations things.

Along with it being soft coded as evil so you could feel the need to incorporate recurring nonviolent evil dealing in your story.

I can see many DMs not wanting to deal with it.

 

[Minigiant]

A lot of them do, yes, but not always.

As far as I know, Andrew Kolb's books aren't crowdfunded, for instance. People who only buy WotC books' brains would break if they got something as deluxe as Neverland, Oz or Wonderland for a lower cost than their usual books

Well how many little guys can publish RPGs through McMeel and distribute out of Simon and Shuster?

I saw my friends copy of Neverland and was amazed. AMAZED.

 

[Queer Venger]

one of my players saw this and asked this Dungeon Master to switch to this class. This DM granted his infernal blessing.
Happy once more that WotC is continuing to expand their catalogue of options with 3rd party creators.
pricey but don't mind supporting awesome talent.

 

[darjr]

one of my players saw this and asked this Dungeon Master to switch to this class. This DM granted his infernal blessing.
Happy once more that WotC is continuing to expand their catalogue of games with 3rd party creators.
pricey but don't mind supporting awesome talent.

Infernal blessing!!!

 

[Ruin Explorer]

It's like having a whole nother Warlocky but not Warlock class to worry about. It's got mini spells and mini feats like almost Invocations things.

I don't think this is a real issue.

As a DM, you likely have 3-7 characters in the group. Of those, maybe half are usually going to be playing significantly complicated/tricky classes (by D&D 5E standards, so not very complicated by more objective standards). The Illrigger doesn't add to that load, it's probably replacing one of the other complicated/tricky classes.

Is it worse than having a Warlock with a funky setup or, I dunno, pretty much any Paladin, or god help us, a Bard?

No. Not really.

Along with it being soft coded as evil so you could feel the need to incorporate recurring nonviolent evil dealing in your story.

I can see many DMs not wanting to deal with it.

Again, this is a bit silly. Warlocks are soft-coded as evil. Rogues are arguably soft-coded as evil, especially with certain subclasses. Shadow Monks are soft-coded as evil. Many things in D&D are "soft-coded" as stuff - doesn't mean you have to act on it. You haven't explained why anyone would feel the need to "incorporate recurring nonviolent evil dealing" in your story? What is an example of what you mean?

I'm not like a huge booster for Illriggers - they have a totally dumb name for starters, sorry Matt, just a total miss with that one! But of all the 3PP classes I've seen, they're one of the least obnoxious.

They're certainly leaps and bounds better-designed than say, the godawful Blood Hunter, which, depending various choices, is somewhere between "literally the worst class in 5E" and "grotesquely overpowered", and just is absolutely top-to-bottom a total mess design-wise (embarrassing honestly).

In fact, let me go further - Illriggers are better designed than Artificers, period. Just in all ways. They're better balanced. They're less of a headache. They fit into a party better. So if you as a DM can handle an Artificer, you can handle an Illrigger. Except maybe for the name. Jesus I dunno if I could keep saying that name for an entire campaign. We'd probably need to come up with a replacement.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

In fact, let me go further - Illriggers are better designed than Artificers, period. Just in all ways. They're better balanced. They're less of a headache. They fit into a party better. So if you as a DM can handle an Artificer, you can handle an Illrigger. Except maybe for the name. Jesus I dunno if I could keep saying that name for an entire campaign. We'd probably need to come up with a replacement.

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.