Hellspeaker Illrigger: D&D 5e Subclass Optimisation Guide

Manipulate others to your will with this silver-tongued illrigger subclass.

Hellspeakers are a subclass of the illrigger class who adhere to Moloch’s political order. They are trained to manipulate, deceive and sow discord through carefully crafted words. When words are not enough, hellspeakers can employ a form of sorcery known as the red cant, weaving subtle magic that can sway others to do whatever the hellspeaker wants.

If you’re looking for a very influential and charismatic character, then an illrigger might be a good option for you. They can charm better than most and can even get enemies to attack one another.

In this article, I’ve looked at how you can optimise your own hellspeaker as well as assessing just how good I think they are and the tactics you can use with them. Just remember, the illrigger and its subclasses are 3rd party content (created by MCDM) so check with your DM before you use them. If you want to play an illrigger, they’re available available on D&D Beyond or as a PDF.

At a glance

Frontline warriors with enhanced attacks
Make exceptional party faces
Can charm others more easily than most
Can also provoke enemies to attack one another

4/5 – Hellspeakers make strong party faces with what can be expertise in a face skills, charm capabilities and a focus on charisma. Add to this the ability to get enemies attacking one another and easier to achieve critical hits and you have quite a dangerous, silver-tongued character. Not every feature lands really well, but there’s plenty of great options for the most charismatic of illrigger subclasses.

Hellspeaker features

Moloch’s blessing (Lv 3) – 3/5

Proficiency in persuasion or deception is nice, but it’s actually best to already have proficiency in these so you can double that bonus when you take this feature making you a very compelling speaker.

Using your forked tongue languages will also grab you advantage on charisma checks to influence in those language. I’d pick some really common languages and try speaking Elvish, Dwarfish and all the other common tongues to everyone you meet in case they speak one of your most influential languages.

This is one of the better ribbon features around.

Charm enemy (Lv3) – 4/5

1hr of the charmed condition is quite substantial and enough to get up to all sorts of shenanigans. This is possible to use in combat too with no downside to being in conflict with the target like some other charming effects. Sadly, charmed may make a creature more amicable towards you, but there’s no guarantees for your allies so you’re preventing attacks against yourself and increasing your chances of influencing them, but not necessarily taking the creature out of combat entirely.

Invoke hell (Lv3) – 5/5

Once per rest you can bag a highly likely critical hit, or get multiple enemies to start attacking each other. Both are strong options and you could take levels in rogue to layer on some sneak attack damage to honey-sweet blades. I imagine that turncoat will result in the most extra damage though. Especially if you’re against some high damage attackers with low charisma (creatures that don’t speak are likely a good target). On top of this, you’ll force these creatures to use their reaction which means no opportunity attacks, counterspells or other types of reactions for a round.

Moloch’s interdiction (Lv7) – 5/5

Extremely reliable charisma checks at the expense of a seal is quite good for a party face. Being able to divert or prevent attacks and spells can be really good too, especially if you’re the only viable target. At level 18, some of your features are going to become extra reliable, like the turncoat invoke hell option and charm enemy as these both require a charisma saving throw. Just make sure these targets have been interdicted.

Intransigent (Lv11) – 3/5

Immunity to the charmed condition for you and nearby party members is decent enough, but charmed isn’t hugely problematic, especially for PCs.

Let’s make a deal (Lv11) – 2/5

Despite the potential drawback with failure, this is probably going to be more worthwhile than not. Having said that, you have 3 potential drawbacks. Failure causes a negative and you don’t know the outcome of your initial roll before you use this feature. That means you might waste your advantage. You also want to use this for rolls you’re less likely to succeed at for the boost in success chances, and yet doing so puts you at a higher risk of failure. Still a rogue looking to land sneak attacks might well thank you for this.

I’d probably use it on important rolls that aren’t too unlikely to succeed on. But I do think this gives me a bit too much conflict on when to use it to consider it as a good feature.

Quid pro quo (Lv15) – 4/5

Basically banishment (a top tier level 4 spell) that summons an allied horned devil. Plus it doesn’t require concentration. That’s not too much of an issue for a hellspeaker that doesn’t possess spells, but does mean you’re not going to have the spell end early from damage for example. It’s very handy for separating out nasty enemies, and at level 18, creatures will make the saving throw with disadvantage if they’ve been interdicted.

How good is the hellspeaker subclass?

Hellspeakers make great party faces. They have the charisma, the proficiency and sometimes even the expertise for this, plus some charming capabilities. Bards are still slightly better, but hellspeakers have some niche areas where they are better than bards here.

They also have some interesting invoke hell and interdict boons to play with, including making enemies hit each other and preventing attacks and spells against you. However, some features don’t land quite as well like let’s make a deal.

Hellspeakers make some of the best charmers in the game and this can open up interesting social opportunities that other characters won’t have available to them.

4/5

Building a hellspeaker illrigger

Hellspeakers are more than just warriors, they’re charismatic manipulators that seek to sway with words before the sword. While you’ll still want a strong martial build, you’ll also want to focus on charisma for those faces skills and a high DC for your features.

Ability scores

Recommended options

Dexterity: I’d say a dexterity build is better for a hellspeaker than a strength build. This is partly because you’ll need to invest a lot on charisma making investing in strength and dexterity difficult (you only have light and medium armor proficiency so will want a minimum of 14 Dex just for the AC boost). Party faces can also be useful in stealthier roles too so a boosted dexterity at least makes you passable here.
Constitution: Most hellspeakers will want to be in the middle of the melee, which means having more resilience through constitution.
Charisma: This affects your DC for things like interdict boons as well as your face skill capabilities (which are really important for a hellspeaker). You’ll also need this for a higher DC for things like charm enemy and invoke hell turncoat.

Options to avoid

Strength: You can go with a strength-based hellspeaker, but you will need to either grab heavy armor proficiency through a feat or multiclassing, or invest a bit in dexterity for the medium armor AC boost. Otherwise, I’d dump this and focus on dexterity.
Wisdom: You should dump wisdom, you’ve got too many other ability scores to focus on.
Intelligence: The same goes for dumping intelligence.

Ability score	Point Buy	Standard Array
Strength	8	10
Dexterity	15	15
Constitution	15	13
Intelligence	8	8
Wisdom	8	12
Charisma	15	14

Skills

Recommended options

With the hellspeaker, while there are several good skill proficiencies, you’ll likely want to be focusing on those face skills as hellspeakers really are built for being the party face. If you can top up your skills with a good background, racial traits or the skilled feat, then you can expand beyond face skills if you want.

Athletics: Only good on a strength build, otherwise not worth splitting athleticism and acrobatics.
Deception: Really important face skill on a hellspeaker. Double your proficiency bonus boost on this if you intend to do a lot of deceiving.
Insight: Your wisdom likely won’t be great, but you will likely be the party face, in which case, a decent insight can be useful.
Intimidation: Another good face skills, especially for an evil leaning class.
Persuasion: Usually the most important face skill and another important one for a party face. Double the proficiency bonus on this if you intend to use more persuasive means of swaying others.
Stealth: Works well on a dexterity build.
Options to avoid
Arcana: Your lack of intelligence means there are likely to be better options for knowledge skills, especially as you’re better off focusing on face skills.
Investigation: similarly, you’ll lack the intelligence to be much good at this.
Religion: Another knowledge skill you’ll lack the intelligence to be good at.

Races

As a hellspeaker, you’ll likely want your race to help you with certain aspects of your build including:

Party face: Hellspeakers are some of the best party faces in the game so boosting your face skills is very useful.
Toughen up: Hellspeakers remain martials that will likely take a bit of a beating. That means anything you can do to increase resilience will be beneficial.
Damage dealing: You also want to deal as much damage as possible meaning traits that can improve this will help.
Innate spellcasting: Most hellspeakers will have a strong charisma, making innate spellcasting a viable option. They aren’t the best for innate spellcasting as they can’t repeat cast spells, but can be decent at it.

Recommended options

Autognome: Improved AC without having to take bravado (so can grab a different combat mastery instead) is great on a dexterity build. Built for success means more reliable attacks or even saving throws and resistances and advantage on saving throws makes you more resilient.
Bugbear: Potentially more damage on the first round of combat, better reach for melee attacks and great at sneaking are all great on an illrigger, especially a dexterity build with high initiative.
Changeling: If you want to lean into the party face aspect of the class, then Changeling is a great option. Grab a couple of face skill proficiencies and be able to change your appearance. Great for the highly charismatic hellspeaker.
Dragonborn: Breath weapon gives you some crowd control and only costs one of your attacks. You also get a resistance and more depending on the type of Dragonborn you take.
Dwarves: The extra constitution and resistances are welcome to toughen you up. Hill Dwarf will get you more hit points, but you’ll have to take an extra wisdom which won’t be useful. Mountain will get you +2 strength which probably won’t be the best for you, and armor training is no good on a hellspeaker that already has those proficiencies so I’d go with Hill Dwarf.
Forest Gnome: Even more resilience for saving throws, the minor illusion cantrip and the ability speak with small beasts.
Goliath: Cold resistance and some reduced damage is handy for the extra resilience.
Hobgoblin: Help as a bonus action with extra bonuses works well for the illrigger which tends to be light on bonus action options unless you take certain interdict boons. Plus you can grab some resilience, damage or speed from this. A boost to failed d20 rolls is great for more resilience and damage too.
Human (variant): An extra skill proficiency and a feat are handy, especially as that skill can help you flesh out those face skills.
Orc: Bonus action dash and temporary hit points to close the gap in melee and for some extra resilience and survive being knocked to 0HP too.
Shifter: Grab intimidation proficiency, a bunch of temporary hit points and some bonus effects like an AC boost, a bonus action attack or improved wisdom saving throws.
Warforged: Warforged have a bunch of resilience features like improved AC, resistance to poison, advantage against the poisoned condition and more.

Backgrounds

Primarily, you want your background to pad out your skills and with a party face requiring quite a few face skills, you’ll likely want to enhance this through your background.

I’d recommend the following backgrounds for a hellspeaker:

Name	Skill proficiencies	Tool proficiency	Languages
Courtier	Insight, persuasion	None	2 of your choice
Faceless	Deception, intimidation	Disguise kit	1 of your choice
Faction agent	Insight and 1 intelligence, wisdom or charisma skill	None	2 of your choice
Gambler	Deception insight	Gaming set	1 of your choice
Smuggler	Athletics, deception	Vehicles (water)	None
Soldier	Athletics, intimidation	Gaming set, vehicles (land)	None

Feats

From level 4 (or at level 1 if you’re playing a Human) you can grab a feat in place of an ability score increase. I’d suggest the following are some of your better options for a hellspeaker:

Fighting initiate: Grab a fighting style to complement your combat mastery.
Heavily armored: If you want a strength build without the dexterity investment, then you can grab this for a high AC and low Dex build.
Inspiring leader: Quite a lot of temporary hit points for the party every rest, especially if you’re a high charisma build.
Lucky: More reliable d20 tests.
Polearm master: A great option, especially with terrorising force which will enhance damage further for each attack you make. This guarantees an option for a bonus action attack each turn and makes opportunity attacks with your reaction much more likely. This combines really well with the swift retribution interdict boon for the potential of double reaction attacks too.
Resilient: Some more resilience for another saving throw.
Sentinel: More opportunity attacks means you get the effects of terrorising force more often and with swift retribution, you can do this more often too.
Tough: More hit points means more resilience, great for a melee martial.

Weapons

Illriggers are capable of fighting with any type of weapon they want. Much of your choice will depend on the combat mastery you take. Brutal will mean using two handed weapons, inexorable means taking any kind of melee weapons and unfettered is good for ranged builds.

Dual-wielders can be a good option if you want more attacks, perhaps to maximise on terrorising force.

Armor

If you’re a strength build, get your dexterity up to 14 and grab some half plate for maximum AC. If you want to do some stealthing, grab a breastplate instead.

For a dexterity build, you can go for studded leather and get your dexterity as high as possible. A shield is a solid option if you want to go for more defence over damage.

Your highest AC option is to go unarmored, but that will require considerable investment. You’ll need to take the bravado combat mastery and get your dexterity and charisma as high as possible (20 if you can). This gives you a 22AC potential with a shield though, or more with magic items.