D&D 5E The 5E Art is Awesome

Reynard · Apr 3, 2015

I was just flipping through my core set, looking for inspiration, and it occurred to me just how great the art is. Much of it gives me a very 2E vibe -- I especially like the adventurers in the woods early in the DMG -- but there are also some great more modern pieces too. They just knocked it out of the park. I would totally buy a hardcover 5E art book.

Flexor the Mighty! · Apr 3, 2015

Its OK. Some really good, some awful. The halflings are horrid, they went from 3e mini elves which I hated, to these grotesque monsters. If I ever saw something like that I'd run over and kill it.

But a lot of really good stuff. Could use some Otis but then again so could every D&D book.

houser2112 · Apr 3, 2015

For me, I haven't been satisfied with both the art and the system for any version of D&D that I've played (excluding 4E, which I skipped over entirely). Love 2E's art (especially Caldwell, Easley, and Elmore), hate the system. Hate 3E's art, love the system. Hate 5E's art, tolerating the system. Pathfinder, though, I love both.

Sacrosanct · Apr 3, 2015

Overall, I really like the art. Every edition has had subpar art mixed in with some good stuff, but by and large, 5e art is the best since AD&D (IMO). I would like to see some more diversity, however. Black and white art can convey things full color can't. And I'd like to see some different styles there too. It was one of the things to turn me off of the art in 3e and 4e--it all looked the same. I loved how AD&D had Trampier, Otus, and Rosloff with all very unique styles.

vandaexpress · Apr 3, 2015

5E's art is definitely growing on me. I spent some time last night just flipping through my DMG looking at the art for the first time. I don't know if that says something about the Art or me as a person that I dove right into the written text rather than soaking in the pictures when I first got the books.

Exception for the 5E MM - which has art that I noticed and loved from the moment I first cracked it open. I know some people don't like the art for the Werewolf, but when I first saw it, my reaction was "holy crap, werewolves are INTENSE".

Jeff Albertson · Apr 3, 2015

Sacrosanct said:
Black and white art can convey things full color can't.

Yeah, really dig the black & white line drawings (Jeff Dee was classic, and I love the art in the 1st Ed Manual of the Planes and 2nd Ed Ravenloft boxed set).

JeffB · Apr 3, 2015

5e art does little for me. Much of the monster art deviates from prior editions too much for my tastes. Some of it I like better than 4e, much of it I don't. 3.o and early 3.5 was the worst though for my tastes.

Overall, I just don't gel with anything WOTC feels the game should look like. Whether that was 1998 or 2015. I would prefer no art, frankly.

jayoungr · Apr 3, 2015

I love everything except the halflings. And the humor of those little black-and-white drawings, like the condition illustrations or the shots of adventurers using dice for cover, really appeals to me. Favorite full-page illustration is probably the dwarf with the shield and the fire, toward the back of the PHB.

Salamandyr · Apr 3, 2015

I think a lot of the monster art is great. And there's some good stuff in the DMG. The art in the Player's Handbook seems actually chosen to repulse me. It's to the point that I prefer to use the Basic rules just so I don't have to look at it. I would pay money to buy an art-free pdf of the PHB that I could open in Illustrator and add my own art.

I seriously doubt, if 5e's art had been de rigeur when I had been introduced to gaming as a 12 year old boy, I doubt I would become a lifelong gamer.

(EDIT: apologies for dropping negativity on a positive thread. If a lot of people are enjoying 5e's art, perhaps I'm in the minority...I just feel strongly enough that, on the off chance a WOTC designer sees this thread, I want him or her to know it's not all sunshine and kittens).