D&D 5E D&D Next weekly art column!

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I'd like to see a lot of variable depictions of Wizards. Some using all the tropes(book, staff, hat, robes, etc...BTW/FYI: Gandalf had no spellbook, he was a sorcerer), and some using few to none.
 

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I went straight for fireball. All of those other accrouments are nice, but using arcane magicks is the only sure way to tell the real wizards from the flamboyant classdressing poseurs.
 


There is just something wrong with a bad ass drow wizard... with a pointy hat. Santa makes my fair skinned brethren wear them, so I must wear them too?

And oh, in the dwarven halls of the rune tablets, we the dwarven arcanists wear pointy hats. Meet Grumpy, Sleepy, Sneezy, Dopey...

I suppose if you were running a fairy tales genre, pointy hats might be an acceptable fashion statement. And I'm totally game with other fashion statements specific campaigns may have, hooded robes may be the wizard's signature in one campaign, and in another the fedora might be the wizard's mark. But in general, I'd say let the wizards be unique in their preferences. Your dwarf wizard, may even choose to wear a pointed beret and still blow stuff up with style.

And one does not need staff, fireball, robes, or pointy hats, to be a wizard, here are a few examples of what I mean.

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Each icon has its place, staff, fire, robes, etc., but I look for some elements of uniqueness in all my characters, and it's been my experience, that most people I play with, also do. As such, I would love an eclectic selection of artwork, for inspiration, as opposed to cookie cutter wizards with robes and staves tossing fireballs.
 

Mengu, your first picture looks like a brawler from an 80's American Martial Arts movie, your second picture looks like a ranger, and the third looks like a noble dandy. None of these look like a wizard by just looking at them.

I don't mind wizards that look unconventional, but I want at least some wizards that come straight out of popular images of mages or fairy tales. I want wizards with pointy hats, beards and robes with stars on them. I want witches on brooms. I want magi in eastern style dress. I even want necromancers in black robes with skulls on them.
 

Mengu, your first picture looks like a brawler from an 80's American Martial Arts movie, your second picture looks like a ranger, and the third looks like a noble dandy. None of these look like a wizard by just looking at them.

I don't mind wizards that look unconventional, but I want at least some wizards that come straight out of popular images of mages or fairy tales. I want wizards with pointy hats, beards and robes with stars on them. I want witches on brooms. I want magi in eastern style dress. I even want necromancers in black robes with skulls on them.
The second one is actually a halfling archer (the bow was edited out), from the 3.5 Player's Handook II, IIRC.

The third one I've always liked. Even if it doesn't scream "wizard!!!" (it was a 3.5 PrClass aiming at mixing warlock and wizard, IIRC), the vaguely Eastern look on his face was very efficient in conveying his "elfness", and the white/black/purple attire is striking.
 

"Wizards", a.k.a. mages and magesses, in my homebrew campaign setting of Orea [I don't have "sorcerers" -as a class- in my world] are generally encountered in robes or flowy tunic/tabbards, cloaks/capes...the occasional hat (or any hood or mantle or something but not necessarily "pointy hat")...

I've said before, "pointed hats" in the world's Mage Lands are a form of "formal attire" to be used at grand balls and in royal audiences, etc. But OUTSIDE those magocratic lands, not so much. Some do...maybe they had a grandmother from R'Hath (the Mage Lands), maybe they had a gift from their mentor/master that happens to be a pointy hat...maybe a "flavor of the DM or players choice"...doesn't matter. But it isn't a "every wizard wears this" sorta thing.

The specialist mages of the various schools have formal colored stoles that they wear in official capacity, and take great pride in wearing their "school colors." Abjurists have a yellow wrap, Evokers have a blue stole, Diviners have a grey mantle, etc...

In my world, these are all much more important signs, symbols and vestments in "Wizard Society" than a pointy hat.

You can have a stickler from a noble R'Hathi family that weas his pointy hat all of the time..."cuz that's how we used to do it in the day." But pure and simple, it's a flavorul fashion style choice...the generic art of D&D 5e ought not have it as a "given."

Use it in some pix...don't use it in others. Simple enough. As for an "archtyal/iconic 5e character"... vote no. No hat.

Yes. Yes. Yes. I can easily say "this is not the case in my world." BUT for those coming to the game for the first time...the newbies...the unimaginative...it ought not be a "given" to the D&D 5e world.
--SD
 


I don't mind wizards dressed as peasants or pilgrims, as long as it's somehow apparent that it is a costume. They're not ACTUALLY an everyman. They have a condescending smile, or a gleam in their eye bespeaking immense, cruel intelligence.

Like when celebrities go to the supermarket in their pyjamas.
 

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