D&D 5E What Is the Iconic Artwork Of 5E?

EzekielRaiden · Jun 6, 2023

The Eberron one is pretty good, and naturally I'm biased toward dragonborn, but overall...I haven't really found 5e art to be particularly inspiring. I don't quite know why. A lot of it is in this weird space of being precisely what it's supposed to be, and yet incredibly forgettable for some reason. It doesn't pop back into my mind when I reflect back on it.

greg kaye · Jun 6, 2023

Humblewood Hedge bard

Parmandur · Jun 6, 2023

greg kaye said:
Humblewood Hedge bard
View attachment 286857

Not bad, albeit off-topic.

cbwjm · Jun 6, 2023

For me, two images for 5e that stick in my head are the fighter and wizard from the class chapter. The fighter especially looks awesome, I think he reminds me of warriors from the Conan comics.

EzekielRaiden · Jun 6, 2023

cbwjm said:
For me, two images for 5e that stick in my head are the fighter and wizard from the class chapter. The fighter especially looks awesome, I think he reminds me of warriors from the Conan comics.

View attachment 286875 View attachment 286876

Yeah, the Fighter here is probably the only 5e official art that really sticks with me. I didn't personally care for how stooped the Wizard looked, but it's not a bad image by any means. Which is sort of my "problem" with most of 5e's official art. It's not bad. It just sort of...slides off my consciousness.

Uni-the-Unicorn! · Jun 6, 2023

EzekielRaiden said:
The Eberron one is pretty good, and naturally I'm biased toward dragonborn, but overall...I haven't really found 5e art to be particularly inspiring. I don't quite know why. A lot of it is in this weird space of being precisely what it's supposed to be, and yet incredibly forgettable for some reason. It doesn't pop back into my mind when I reflect back on it.

It is a problem with all editions. I can’t think of anything that really sticks with me from 3e, or 4e, or most of 2e or 1e even.

What “sticks” is that art that wowed me when I was young and new to the game. It is not better art necessarily, it was just new to me then, I was more impressionable, and I had lest context. Now, I’ve seen so much D&D art that any one piece has less impact.

James Gasik · Jun 6, 2023

Uni-the-Unicorn! said:
It is a problem with all editions. I can’t think of anything that really sticks with me from 3e, or 4e, or most of 2e or 1e even.

What “sticks” is that art that wowed me when I was young and new to the game. It is not better art necessarily, it was just new to me then, I was more impressionable, and I had lest context. Now, I’ve seen so much D&D art that any one piece has less impact.

For me, the instant I see a Larry Elmore piece, I immediately have fuzzy, nostalgic feelings for late 1e and 2e in general.

Uni-the-Unicorn! · Jun 6, 2023

James Gasik said:
For me, the instant I see a Larry Elmore piece, I immediately have fuzzy, nostalgic feelings for late 1e and 2e in general.

Yes, I can’t get that from any other edition because of the nature of time, space, and childhood memories; not so much because of the art itself.

Evaniel · Jun 6, 2023

It's obviously this:

KIDDING!

I'm struggling to find images, but I in terms of the core books, I like a lot of the "quieter moments" where the PCs are at camp and such. For me, many of the module covers are more "iconic" than the contents of the core books. I love the cover art for WD: DH, WD: DotMM, ID: RotFM, and CotS.