D&D (2024) Here's The New 2024 Player's Handbook Wizard Art

 

[FitzTheRuke]

So do we know why their staff is floating?

It's a Floating Staff - magic item. Or, she just dropped it to cast the spell with both hands, and it's simply leaning on her Orb of Invulnerability. Or, it's a Staff of Animating Objects and it animated itself along with all of those flying books, and she's casting Shield while flying with her Belt of Flying and wearing her Glasses of True Sight.

There's no end to the stories that this picture could be implying. No end to stories? Sounds like D&D to me.

 

[Yaarel]

Medieval-trans-humanism-punk!

Medieval transhumanism punk − in other words Elves.


The elven governments can be democratic as well. Each "Fey court" is its own local system of government.

In 1e, Greyhawk, there is a famous but obscure magocracy, the Valley of the Mage. The citizens of this culture are Elves, Gnomes, and Humans. Hypothetically, this culture too can lean into this magitech transhumanism.

 

[Yaarel]

There's no end to the stories that this picture could be implying. No end to stories? Sounds like D&D to me.

Regarding OP image with the floating staff and books during spellcasting, I feel this is simply a way to personalize spells and spellcasting, via Spell Thematics in Tashas.

 

[Yaarel]

Most DMs will have a cleric in cities, even major towns, capable of raising the dead. Many times those clerics will ask for the PCs to complete some task in exchange. ...

This is the Way. Normally, the price of magic is "tasks".

High slot spells are like reallife medical technology. The advanced treatments exist but are difficult for the general population to access.

Unlike reallife technology which is a tool, in my campaigns, magic items are persons requiring a relationship − attunement. Magic imprints the will of the mage who must "want" to assist the user of the item. This is why magic items require "tasks" and a use in ways that cohere with the purpose of the original mage who created the item.

Magic items are impossible to buy and sell because it is pointless to spend alot of money to get an item, when the item itself refuses to cooperate. Likewise it is pointless to steal an item, except to deprive its user.

Everything about magic is a personal intention, requiring agendas and relationships.

There is such thing as "Common" items that creators crafted for the purpose of assisting the anonymous "masses". These attune moreorless automatically. But rare items normally serve specific purposes, and the more powerful it is, the more the creator seeks to control who can use it.

An individual mage can demand money for magical services, but often, powerful mages dont need money. They do need allies and tasks.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Regarding OP image with the floating staff and books during spellcasting, I feel this is simply a way to personalize spells and spellcasting, via Spell Thematics in Tashas.

Absolutely. I don't personally think that the image needs explaining, but I can easily explain it. It's "whatever is happening in the campaign that this takes place in" or, more correctly, "whatever the artist had in mind when making the art".

 

[ezo]

Regarding OP image with the floating staff and books during spellcasting, I feel this is simply a way to personalize spells and spellcasting, via Spell Thematics in Tashas.

That, for me, is another thing I don't like about it.

Magic is magic in my games. The gestures, etc. for a spell being performed must be the same as if anyone else is casting it, and the results always look the same was well. If a player wanted their magic missiles to look like chickens, I would just look at them sideways, and tell them to just roll damage. Sorry, but I do take my D&D games, etc. seriously -- and to me, such things take away from that and my enjoyment of the game.

Yeah, I know, people will cry out once more, but oh well... that's just how I play.

DISCLAIMER: All content of this post is the opinion of the author. No infringement on the rights or priviledges of others is intended or implied.

 

[CreamCloud0]

i think maybe the issue lays not with the design of the image itself but the fact that the DnD wizard is such a generic a concept in it's execution that adding any flavour which is even mildly more associated with another type of caster that it stops seeming like a wizard and starts seeming more like that other class.

 

[Yaarel]

Magic is magic in my games. The gestures, etc. for a spell being performed must be the same as if anyone else is casting it, and the results always look the same was well. If a player wanted their magic missiles to look like chickens, I would just look at them sideways, and tell them to just roll damage. Sorry, but I do take my D&D games, etc. seriously -- and to me, such things take away from that and my enjoyment of the game.

Heh, for me, the magic I care about is psionic. I couldnt care less about specific finger gestures, rare ingredient, or ritual. Most of psionic training is learning how to avoid spellcasting accidentally.

When I think about D&D magic, its flavors organize by power source: martial, psionic, primal, divine, and arcane. Each source has its own set of methods to participate in magical effects.

Psionic and primal rely on innate magic, ones own soul. These are internal sources of magic. In this animistic context, rocks, rivers, plants, etcetera have a soul. Wolves might altogether have a collective soul, a lupine spiritual presence and influence. There are levels to a soul: aura (Material), spirit (Ethereal), and mind (Astral). The term ki refers to a bodily aura. Nature beings are less actively minds, but all have auras to various degrees, and some have a strong spirit influence.

Martial is like nonmagical reallife while extraordinary feats sometimes utilize the innate ki aura.

Divine and arcane rely on external magic, namely the mysterious quality inherent in existence itself, the ambient magic sometimes referred to as the Weave. Divine connects with this external magic via archetypal symbols, cultural paradigms, and linguistics. It tends to focus on the miracle of the primordial "creation", where Astral thought preexists Material effect, as well as an ongoing miraculous sustenance and intervention. Most divine spells should rely on a verbal component, whether spoken out loud or silently contemplated. There can be a material component in the form of a cultural symbol that helps tap into the collective magic of the sacred community. A somatic component is less salient, albeit can serve as a kind of sign language to communicate the worldview of the community. Divine magic is all about sacred texts and sacred language.

Arcane connects to this external magic of the Weave via the magic properties inherent in ordinary objects, like ingredients that require specific material components to construct a ritual process for a specific magical effect. Individual arcanists can tweak this process to personalize an effect. It is like writing a computer code. One can tweak this code, but whatever it is, it runs the same way every time. An arcane wand or other focus, is a high tech magic device that can substitute for various material components. It is often the case in arcane magic, that the arcanist utilizes ones own soul via intentions and concentration as one of the ingredients among the components. Indeed, in the list of spell components, V, S, and M, one can add C for concentration. In the case of Sorcerers, their own body is any and every material component. They might still require verbal and somatic, but they dont need to study the protoscience of ordinary objects. Generally, I hope 2024 removes the costly gp component from every spell because the game rules requiring external money interfere extremely with the flavor of innate magic. Spells that need to avoid spamming, such as undead animation, should have appropriately flavorful limits in the spell description.

 

[mamba]

Absolutely. I don't personally think that the image needs explaining, but I can easily explain it. It's "whatever is happening in the campaign that this takes place in" or, more correctly, "whatever the artist had in mind when making the art".

that is not so much an explanation as throwing the hands up and saying ‘well, I assume the artist must have had an idea about what is going on here’…

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I could care less about specific finger gestures, rare ingredient, or ritual.

How much less?

When I think about D&D magic, its flavors organize by power source: martial, psionic, primal, divine, and arcane. Each source has its own set of methods to participate in magical effects.

Psionic and primal rely on innate magic, ones own soul. These are internal sources of magic. In this animistic context, rocks, rivers, plants, etcetera have a soul. Wolves might altogether have a collective soul, a lupine spiritual presence and influence. There are levels to a soul: aura (Material), spirit (Ethereal), and mind (Astral). The term ki refers to the aura. Nature beings are less actively minds, but all have aura to some degree, and some have a strong spirit influence.

How is the primal internal? If a druid draws power from these nature souls, that's external to the druid...

Divine and arcane rely on external magic, namely the mysterious quality inherent in existence itself, the ambient magic sometimes referred to as the Weave. Divine connects with this external magic via archetypal symbols, cultural paradigms, and linguistics. It tends to focus on the miracle of the primordial "creation", where Astral thought preexists Material effect, as well as an ongoing miraculous sustenance and intervention.

I think this is rather unorthodox interpretation of divine. How do the gods fit into this?

Arcane connects to this external magic via the magic properties inherent in ordinary objects, like ingredients that require specific material components to construct a ritual process for a specific material effect. An arcane wand or other focus, is a high tech magic device that can substitute for various material components. It is often the case in arcane magic, that the arcanist utilizes ones own soul via intentions and concentration as one of the ingredients among the components. Indeed, in the list of spell components, V, S, and M, one can add C for concentration. In the case of Sorcerers, their own body is any and every material component. They might still require verbal and somatic, but they dont need to study the protoscience of ordinary objects. Generally, I hope 2024 removes the costly gp component from every spell because external money interferes extremely with innate magic. Spells that need to avoid spamming, such as undead animation, should have appropriately flavorful limits in the spell description.

On second though, perhaps this or this thread are better places for the discussion on these topics?