D&D 4E 4e tiefling art vs. previous edition tiefling art?

AllisterH · Oct 14, 2007

Scholar & Brutalman said:
Check out the enormous ears as well. Obvious anime influence...

I have to admit, one thing about PS's tieflings is that they could give an anime/manga elf a run for their money on the size of their ears....

Reaper Steve · Oct 14, 2007

While I think that the 4E tiefing art is maybe a bit extreme, I prefer the 4E tiefling pics to the 2E pics.

Wormwood · Oct 14, 2007

Dragonhelm said:
I'm going to be the voice of dissent here. I actually like the look of the 4e tiefling.

Trust me, you are not alone!

Hussar · Oct 14, 2007

Klaus said:
Why not both?

In 2e tieflings had a TABLE with various types of fiendish appearances. I had a tiefling in one of my 2e games that was essentially Nightcrawler.

And that's fair enough. So, where are the tiefling pics that look like Nightcrawler and not erm... as one poster put it, "twee"?

Geron Raveneye · Oct 14, 2007

While I'm not that invested in the planetouched, looks can make a difference...even if you want them more "horny" than 2e presented them now and then. If you look at the preview of tieflings for 4e, their horns make them look like Klingon offshoots.

http://www.enworld.org/images/4e/tiefling.jpg

And that's one of the more "sexy" depictions of 4e tieflings.

Contrast it with this depiction from a Dungeon cover here...

...where you still have all the attributes the 4e tiefling has (horns, tail, "goat feet", etc), but much less overdrawn. Her, I can believe to be descended from an evil outsider playing in her family's genetic pool generations ago.

Edit: Trying to find a smaller 4E picture that doesn't stretch the page so much, and replacing the 3e color tiefling with a b&w drawing to be more fair.

Aloïsius · Oct 14, 2007

Those pictures are large, even on a 22' LCD...

Note that we can't really compare those two pictures, because one is a B&W sketch, while the other is full color painting.

Geron Raveneye · Oct 14, 2007

Aloïsius said:
Those pictures are large, even on a 22' LCD...

Note that we can't really compare those two pictures, because one is a B&W sketch, while the other is full color painting.

Already noticed and am working on correcting it. But thanks nonetheless.

Hussar · Oct 14, 2007

You see Klingon in that first sketch? Really? Wow, my imagination isn't that good.

But, you do realize that the first sketch could easily be a concept sketch for the second one right?

Geron Raveneye · Oct 14, 2007

Hussar said:
You see Klingon in that first sketch? Really? Wow, my imagination isn't that good.

Yeah...all you need to do is extend the hornplate up and out behind her head to end in two pointy horns, and of course shave off those caterpillar eyebrows.

But, you do realize that the first sketch could easily be a concept sketch for the second one right?

Nope, sorry...they may depict the same kind of tiefling, but the way they do are pretty much different. If by concept sketch you mean "a sketch of a woman with horns on her head", I might agree...but that would be a bit too broad for me.
But that's squabbling over artwork tastes again. And since we don't know yet if the tieflings in 4e have the same progenitors and family history as those in 2e/3e, we're left with shooting magic missiles at the dark.

Geron Raveneye · Oct 14, 2007

Of course it should be amended that tieflings used to have a variety of looks based on who exactly was their great-great-ancestor, so the 4e depiction could be just another variant from a demon/devil who had excessively big horns.