D&D 5E The Illrigger: Why I hate this class and love what it could have been.

At this point I'm absolutely going Blackguard instead of Knave due to it's specific historical connection to the game. Though I might include a note that Blackguards are Knaves and Varlets as well 'cause I think it's amusing!

Just hope people are down with the "Occult Warrior" concept in place of the strictly "anti-paladin" idea.
Knave at least reminds me of the old Jester class.
 

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There are so many names which are the same as something from the history of D&D or similar-enough to it that it gives the sense it's a more legit continuation of the game. Illrigger?
ironically the name does come from an earlier class by that name in Dragon magazine (I believe), so it is a name from D&D’s history
 

At this point I'm absolutely going Blackguard instead of Knave due to it's specific historical connection to the game. Though I might include a note that Blackguards are Knaves and Varlets as well 'cause I think it's amusing!

Just hope people are down with the "Occult Warrior" concept in place of the strictly "anti-paladin" idea.
I think blackguard is probably the best choice. It still feels sufficiently knavish and is easy to say, read, and spell.
 

I would like to note: Rogue doesn't mean "Thief". It means "Dishonest or Unprincipled Person". Synonymous with Scoundrel, Reprobate, Rascal.

D&D is what made rogue into thief.
I don't think that this assertion really flies. In film and literature, thieves - including the likes of Robin Hood - were already being called "rogues" before Gygax's balls dropped.

In 2e D&D, the thief was part of the "rogue" group, which also included bards. It wasn't until 3e that the thief was renamed the "rogue." But between 2e and 3e were a wide host of video games that were already calling otherwise thieves "rogues," including the influential Diablo 1 game.

Knave, Varlet, and Blackguard are also not professions!

They're insults!
A "knave" referred to a boy servant, a cognate with the High German word "Knabe," which is still used to refer to a "boy" or "lad." A "blackguard" was the servant responsible for taking care of kitchen utensils, which is how you know that your ex-paladins have fallen on truly hard times.

Both of these terms later acquired a sense of dishonest people, likely as a result of classism that looked down on working class servants.
 



There is a picture of the front page of the article somewhere in this thread.
Ah, I found it in Dragon Magazine #106. Briefly, they seem to be a Paladin/Rogue mix with a focus on lawful evil. They are a partial caster and can use Thief skills and basically half level, and they assassinate.

THE ILLRIGGER
Lawful Evil, with oaths to not be chaotic. Often devil worshippers.
Heavy armor, Morning star weapons (primarily)
Wisdom and intelligence are the prime requisites

The special abilities of an illrigger are:
1. A continual emanation of a protection from good spell.
2. Immunity to all forms of disease.
3. Detection of good at 5' per level.
4. Saving throw bonuses against chaotic magic at +1 for each three levels
5. Spell use at 5th level and above.
6. The use of certain thief functions at a level of ability equal to half the level of the illrigger
7. The ability to attack on the assassins table for assassinations after surprising an opponent.
 


Also Oat-eater, which is great for making fun of them.

"What is he, a horse?"
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Considering this book has the option to play Horses as a sub-race choice, that is actually legit feasible.
 

don’t know much about it, they featured ‘paladins’ for all the other alignments and the illrigger was one of them (and probably the best name out of the bunch, which is saying something ;) )
I don't know if I agree with this. There were seven alternate paladins in that article, to complement the Lawful Good paladin and the Chaotic Evil anti-paladin (which is the probable actual worst name of the bunch):
  • The Lawful Evil Illrigger.
  • The Neutral Good Myrikhan seem like sort-of paladin/rangers, opposed by the Arrikhan.
  • The Chaotic Good Garath seem like fancy templars, mostly protecting pilgrims.
  • The Lawful Neutral Lyan is a cleric/paladin.
  • The True Neutral Paramander is a thief/paladin fighting for the Balance.
  • The Chaotic Neutral Fantra are nomadic templars.
  • The Neutral Evil Arrikhan seem like sort-of anti-paladin/anti-rangers, opposed by the Myrikhan.
I wanted to like these paladins, but I never did. People I know who liked the article mostly enjoyed the power-ups the various orders had. I want flavor for my new classes, and these guys seemed like just collections of power-ups with little lore to add color to a setting. There was a decent dynamic between the Myrikhan and Arrikhan, but the rest of the classes had poorly-defined ethoi. Plus, some of the alignment decisions made no sense; there was a variant Parmander, the Paramandyr, who was hell-bent on destroying all of alignments other than Neutral, which is not IMO a True Neutral perspective. But then, I've never been a fan of alignments and never use them in my games, so I never used these paladins.

But I like the name "Parmander" for a class.
 

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