D&D 5E The 5E Art is Awesome

[Fralex]

I will never understand people's dislike for "cheesecake" art. People in real life dress provocatively too. Go to any college campus on a Friday or Saturday night and tell me how you see the girls dressing. I went to visit a friend of mine in Morgantown at WVU this past fall and we went out on the town one night, literally around 75-80% of the girls I saw were wearing dresses or skirts that came no longer than mid-thigh and 4 to 5 inch heels. I've lived in Europe and it is much the same when going out over there as well, if not more so.

I'm not saying by any means that every peice of art should be provocative, and when its done it should make sense within the context of the world, but it definitely has it's place as well. Give us succubus's dressed like skanks, nymphs wearing next to nothing, drow priestesses in fetish wear, and ab'd up shirtless barbarians rocking loincloths. It's all about internal consistency.

Yeah, I have no problem with art like that, either (in moderation). I believe the problem most people have is that in a lot of fantasy art, women wearing skimpy clothes has become a cliché. It's happened so many times in the past that even seeing it once more starts to feel like too much. Particularly when it's clearly only there for male gaze, like armor that doesn't protect someone's vital organs.
The solution, as I see it, is not to never include art like that in anything. Just to A)Include it in places where it actually makes some sense, B)Spread it across both genders, and C)Realize there are other ways of making someone look hot besides stripping them to their underwear. I'd say the 5e art does pretty well by that metric.

TL;DR Sexy fantasy art is awesome if it isn't lazy.

 

[Staffan]

I will never understand people's dislike for "cheesecake" art. People in real life dress provocatively too. Go to any college campus on a Friday or Saturday night and tell me how you see the girls dressing.

Wearing skimpy clothing when you're ready for a night out on the town is one thing. Wearing it when you're about to descend into a dungeon where you're likely to be doing battle with all sorts of horrid things is quite another.

The late sir Terry even commented on the issue in one of his earliest Discworld books, The Light Fantastic: "The point that must be made is that although Herrena the Henna-Haired Harridan would look quite stunning after a good bath, a heavy-duty manicure, and the pick of the leather racks in Woo Hung Ling's Oriental Exotica and Martial Aids on Heroes Street, she was currently quite sensibly dressed in light chain mail, soft boots, and a short sword. All right, maybe the boots were leather. But not black."

In other words, your warrior women, when dressed for war, should not look like the Maiden of the Mirthless Smile.

 

[Reynard]

Wearing skimpy clothing when you're ready for a night out on the town is one thing. Wearing it when you're about to descend into a dungeon where you're likely to be doing battle with all sorts of horrid things is quite another.

The late sir Terry even commented on the issue in one of his earliest Discworld books, The Light Fantastic: "The point that must be made is that although Herrena the Henna-Haired Harridan would look quite stunning after a good bath, a heavy-duty manicure, and the pick of the leather racks in Woo Hung Ling's Oriental Exotica and Martial Aids on Heroes Street, she was currently quite sensibly dressed in light chain mail, soft boots, and a short sword. All right, maybe the boots were leather. But not black."

In other words, your warrior women, when dressed for war, should not look like the Maiden of the Mirthless Smile.

It is this



versus this

 

[Unwise]

My last female characters were a wild-elf ranger, a norse valkyrie cleric of tempest, a Fijian/Hawaiian barbarian and an ex-whore charlatan rogue. They all dressed in ways that could make the pics above blush, but it was culturally appropriate for all of them. It's neither small minded nor misogynist for some warrior women to dress in striking ways. They were all lightly armored in practice though. No boob-plate-mail here.

P.S. Come to think of it, my last male characters were Hussan-Chop from bugs bunny, a Fijian Hoodoo priest and an Aztec Jaguar Warrior. Maybe I just have an aversion to chest clothing full stop.

 

[Sunseeker]

There is diversity even among the non-humans. A dark-skinned elf (or half-elf) is even on the cover.

A quick leaf-through of the PHB yielded 6 black characters (one is a dwarf, in the Guardian of Faith illustration), 4 asian characters and 2 middle-eastern characters.

The character on the cover is half shadowed and lit by a weird light, I don't feel sure claiming it is one race or another. Plus "races" based off skin-tones, work differently with non-humans. Most of the elves I saw seemed "normal" skin colored or pale white.

 

[Klaus]

The character on the cover is half shadowed and lit by a weird light, I don't feel sure claiming it is one race or another. Plus "races" based off skin-tones, work differently with non-humans. Most of the elves I saw seemed "normal" skin colored or pale white.

Even discounting the character on the cover and the Guardian of Faith dwarf, there are still 12 non-white characters throughout the PHB.

As for the nonhumans, there's an effort to provide variety even in those. Sun elves are tanned blondes, moon elves are bluish pale, gold dwarves have deep brown skin and curly hair, etc. We got a very thorough document with all the different ethnicities, to keep the look consistent.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I will never understand people's dislike for "cheesecake" art. People in real life dress provocatively too. Go to any college campus on a Friday or Saturday night and tell me how you see the girls dressing. I went to visit a friend of mine in Morgantown at WVU this past fall and we went out on the town one night, literally around 75-80% of the girls I saw were wearing dresses or skirts that came no longer than mid-thigh and 4 to 5 inch heels. I've lived in Europe and it is much the same when going out over there as well, if not more so.

How many of those women were in an environment where they'd be routinely exposed to sprays of acid, fire, poison, etc? Traveling through woods with brambles that will scratch stupidly exposed thighs, midriffs and cleavage? Someone once said sensible clothing for a dungeon should be about what you'd wear to cook the greasiest bacon in the world during an earthquake in.

 

[houser2112]

How many of those women were in an environment where they'd be routinely exposed to sprays of acid, fire, poison, etc? Traveling through woods with brambles that will scratch stupidly exposed thighs, midriffs and cleavage? Someone once said sensible clothing for a dungeon should be about what you'd wear to cook the greasiest bacon in the world during an earthquake in.

That's how I feel when I think about monks. You're fighting otyughs, and fire elementals, and black puddings, and you're going to try to touch them with your bare skin ON PURPOSE?

 

[Evenglare]

I don't think halflings are anywhere NEAR as bad as everyone makes them out to be.

 

[Fralex]

Yeah, I'm starting to feel sorry for them. They're just drawn that way, they can't help it. >: