D&D 5E DDN Concept Art

[Salamandyr]

I'm probably not the best judge. Overall I like the concept pieces more than I did the majority of art in 4e. I probably like it a little less than the better art from 3e. None of it grabs me as much as D&D fantasy art from the 70's and 80's.

Except for the halflings. The halflings are terrible, and will cause me to ban them from my games.

 

[the Jester]

He proposed big halfling heads to make them distinct from just being short humans....while I do mot like any of the implementations so far, I do not have another way in mind. That is, if a halfling is not next to a human, how do you know it is not a human?

Big hairy bare feet.

 

[SuperZero]

He proposed big halfling heads to make them distinct from just being short humans....while I do mot like any of the implementations so far, I do not have another way in mind. That is, if a halfling is not next to a human, how do you know it is not a human?

Is looking like small humans really a problem? I've always thought of halflings as having the same proportions as humans, just smaller.
In a portrait with nothing else in the picture, I guess they would look the same. But most of the time DnD pictures show characters doing stuff, which means there's other people or stuff in the picture that lets you judge the characters' size.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

Like most, I think the Halflings just look silly. As someone else said, they'd be fine in a fairie story, but not in an adventure story.

The one thing I'm totally in favor of is that the female Dwarf doesn't have a beard! I've always thought that was a stupid idea. In fact, it was considered a joke by most people when it was first proposed back in the old Dragon forum.

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

I enjoy the halflings, and I think that the concept is moving the right direction, but it is overly exaggerated, and I do want hairy feet. I very much don't want halflings to just be small humans.

As for the rest of the art, I like the style, and I really like how naturally every seems to be dressed. It's pretty easy to believe in the Forgotten Realms with art like that.

 

[innerdude]

The Rules Cyclopedia halfling art FTW. No other D&D artwork has really captured the "feel" of halflings for me.

 

[The Human Target]

I overall really like it.

Don't give a crap about realistic proportions or whatnot.

Dislike Elves and Dwarves the most.

Pretty boring.

 

[Kaodi]

I think most of my feelings about the humanoids have been covered (though I should also point out that this should apply equally to the sahuagin's relatively spindly legs; needs power for swimming, after all).

What I do not think has been mentioned so far though is the aboleth. While the previous incarnation of the aboleth was rather straight-up alien looking, I think this version may be superior. With the arm-ish tentacles it actually looks like something that could be a master of eldritch arts. The lamprey mouth might not have been, strictly speaing, necessary. But I do not mind it.

 

[JonWake]

No, everyone is complaining that nonhumans (and some humanoids and humans too) have dumb proportions.

A beholder is a totally wacky creatures that doesn't make any sense. How can it possibly eat, move, float... how can both the mouth and eye fit in the same head? It's nonsense, but it's an aberration, it's supposed to make no sense, and if you don't like it (I accept the iconic beholder, but I hate wacky monsters in general) you can ignore it.

But if the majority of creatures look nonsense, then you pretty much set the mood, look & feel of the game to "wacky". They can rationale as much as they want, but if it looks & feels too stupid, a lot of customers may be tempted to stay away.

To turn this around on you, how does something with the cranial capacity of a chimpanzee understand language, let alone the complex mystical formula required to cast spells?

 

[Remathilis]

I wasn't impressed by most of the art, but THIS picture did a good job. Even the halfling.

I'd much prefer "normal perportions" but this was a good step in the right direction.