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

 

[Parmandur]

I just wanted to note that there was a decade in which American artists who were familiar with manga and anime made their debuts in various science fiction & fantasy fields. That decade was the 1970s. Frank Miller and Wendy Pini are the most famous of that generation; like the others, they hung around Asian grocery stores and scooped up imported manga and pirated videotapes, well before most of us had done more than heard about manga or seen anything anime more sophisticated than Kimba the White Lion and Soeed Racer. Pini’s Wlfquest series debuted in 1978, Miller’s run on Daredevil (his first work where he put manga influence to work) in 1979.

Which is to say that successful American commercial fantasy art is not older than D&D. But it is older than Moldvay/Cook Basic, and the same age as the AD&D1 Player’s Handbook (in the case of Pini) and DM’s Guide (in the case of Miller). In effectiv terms, it’s as old as D&D, and if D&D can have ancient well-established conventions, then so can American fantasy art with manga and anime influences. They aren’t news.

(Barlowe’s Guide to Extraterrestrials is also a 1979 release, and Barlowe was another American influenced early by Asian commercial art along with his Western influences.)


I could sit here and go on about Barlowe, P. Craig Russell, Donna Barr, Colleen Doran…but those are standouts. I’m inclined to agree. We were watching some of the Korean series Alchemy of Souls this week, and I kept thinking, “Now this is a way I love magic to look like.”

True, and not to forget what a big splash D&D made in Manga and Anime art since the 80's, it's full circle.

 

[Parmandur]

I really like the wizard art in the 2014 PHB. Something about the character and the color saturation just really works for me.

This one is okay too as an action piece (maybe casting a wish or something?)

I like the 2014 image, and I like this. Just different pieces.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Personally, I don’t care for the 2014 art very much. None of it really.

But I find that in practice wizards generally wear whatever passes for regular clothes in their current location. They don’t want to draw attention to their abilities. That was certainly the case for the dwarven sorcerer I played last time I was a player, who dressed somewhat like Indiana Jones.

 

[Thommy H-H]

I think the idea that a wizard shouldn't wear glasses might be the biggest reach I've read here so far. Yes, heaven forfend the nerd class look like a nerd.

 

[Reef]

She looks loke a generic person with generic shiny powers to me.
The robe could belong to anybody.
No sense of wonder, lots of explicit flashy things.
And glowy eyes.
And anachronistic glasses on top.

So what would she need to look like a wizard then? She has the magic staff and a spellbook. Right there, to me, thats a big differentiator from other magic-using classes. If I’m trying to guess what class a magic user in a picture is, the staff and spellbook are usually the biggest give away. It’s sort of like claiming that someone holding up a glowing holy symbol doesn’t look like a cleric.

And as pointed out earlier, the glasses aren’t any more anachronistic than half the weapons and armor list (not even taking account all the magical glasses that are available).

Sense of wonder is too individual to question (although, personally I would…heh).

 

[gorice]

I'm ambivalent about this one. I like the glasses: she's a wizard, and wizards are squinty weirdos who spend too much time looking at books. As a squinty weirdo who spends too much time looking at books, I approve. It's also nice to see an iconic wizard who isn't a crusty old bloke once in a while.

OTOH, they've sexed her up way too much. As others have said, the superhero/thirst trap/wish fulfillment stuff is completely over the top. Personally, I find it grotesque. That's before we even get into the details of her horrible, horrible outfit. She has zero (0) armour protecting her (generous) chest, but she does have massive and completely pointless spaulders on her shoulders? And a bunch of weird shiny filigree nonsense around her boobs, just to make them stand out more, in case we hadn't noticed them? And whatever the hell is hanging on her hips? Five or six different pieces of awkward white cloth instead of a good honest robe? Also, good luck getting those bangles off without a saw.

I sentence the artist to 10 years hard study and drawing of actual traditional costumes, until they understand how clothes work.

 

[Parmandur]

Personally, I don’t care for the 2014 art very much. None of it really.

I will say that just trying to imagine the 2014 Class archetype images as Magic cards really doesn't work, and that is a pretty good test of the quality of a fantasy splash page art.

 

[ezo]

And anachronistic glasses on top.

Personally, that isn't my issue about the glasses. Glasses IRL have been around since the 13th century IIRC, which for myself falls well within the range of "medieval period" for the fantasy I like to run.

It simply strikes be as odd for a powerful "wizard" which this image depicts to me. As I've mentioned upthread, magic can do all these amazing things in the game of D&D, but can't help impaired vision? Seems strange. Now, I've admitted the option they are "magical lens" of some sort makes more sense, even if not depicted in the way I imagine magical lens would work in the game.

I think the idea that a wizard shouldn't wear glasses might be the biggest reach I've read here so far. Yes, heaven forfend the nerd class look like a nerd.

Seems more like it would be a stereotype we'd be moving away from, not embracing?

So what would she need to look like a wizard then? She has the magic staff and a spellbook. Right there, to me, thats a big differentiator from other magic-using classes. If I’m trying to guess what class a magic user in a picture is, the staff and spellbook are usually the biggest give away. It’s sort of like claiming that someone holding up a glowing holy symbol doesn’t look like a cleric.

Well, as has been covered upthread, the spellbook appears to be one of many, simply floating or flying around her (I like the mentioned idea of them being animated spellbooks attacking her!), and the magic floating (or being dropped?) staff seems strange as well. Why floating? If it is hers, why isn't she just holding it in one of her hands? The pose is much too superhero-ish (I'm so darn good I don't even need to hold my spellcasting focus!) for me.

She looks WAY more like a Divine Soul Sorcerer IMO. If someone told me that is what this image shows, given a tagline: "A divine soul sorcerer casts Shield to fend off attacking animated spellbooks", I would have said NAILED IT! Especially if she was holding the staff and not floating, glasses or not.

OTOH, they've sexed her up way too much.

OMG yes! What the heck!? I agreed with another poster upthread, but many people seemed too inclined with arguing against my "anti-glasses agenda" to be bothered with something that is more of an actual issue with the image.

 

[Charlaquin]

D&D has always been wish fulfillment. It just fulfills the wishes of more demographics now.

 

[Oofta]

So what would she need to look like a wizard then? She has the magic staff and a spellbook. Right there, to me, thats a big differentiator from other magic-using classes. If I’m trying to guess what class a magic user in a picture is, the staff and spellbook are usually the biggest give away. It’s sort of like claiming that someone holding up a glowing holy symbol doesn’t look like a cleric.

And as pointed out earlier, the glasses aren’t any more anachronistic than half the weapons and armor list (not even taking account all the magical glasses that are available).

Sense of wonder is too individual to question (although, personally I would…heh).

I just have to add ... D&D is nowhere near based on reality that existed historically. The technology is all over the map, as is much fantasy fiction.

I'm perfectly OK with that, because functional magic changes everything. That and people wearing glasses (in western cultures anyway) are judged to be more intelligent. Might as well lean into the tropes.