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

 

[Crimson Longinus]

It's a cute idea that several games have taken a shot at but I have yet to see a game structure itself so as to make it plausible.

The trouble is, to make it work, you'd basically need to make adventurers take 1+ year breaks between each adventure, or like 10+ year breaks between each, say, chunk of a campaign, and it's just not very plausible that all the PCs would both get together again and get back into adventuring after such breaks. Life changes happen - people would settle down, marry, have/adopt kids, get real jobs, and so on. Then they wouldn't want to get back into adventuring.

Sure, it is not easy to do. I have done it in Ars Magica and most memorably in Exalted. I ran an Exalted Dragon-Blooded campaign where the characters started as teenagers in a boarding school and ended up as middle-aged movers and shakers of the Realm.

I think mechanics-wise what would support this if there were extensive downtime activities you could do. Like characters would just stop for months to craft a magic item or for years to build a keep or run a business etc.

It also would help if recovery was not so insanely fast! Make long rest six months!

The other big problem is, with D&D's approach to races and aging, which is a sacred cow of the most unkillable kind, you'd have a human basically on their deathbed before most of the demihuman races even reached middle age (THANKS TOLKIEN!!!). Modern races like tieflings and dragonborn were thoughtfully given more human-like lifespans, but most of the older races are barely getting grey hairs at 100, if even that. And elves, popular as they are, just get to watch everyone age and die whilst they're still in the elf physical equivalent of their 20s (I believe there's even an anime about this - Frieren - I haven't watched it yet, I hear it's good though).

That I say is a feature, not a bug in this sort of approach. For once we would actually see these different lifespans having an effect, and experience what it means in practice.

 

[pemerton]

Other than the fact that she's black, how in the heck is that "Storm"?

I'm glad you posted this. Thank you.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

And at the end of the day, the question isn’t whether she could win an “I look like a wizard!” contest with Gandalf. It’s whether people could pick her out as the wizard next to the other D&D class illustrations.

I think the only thing that might weaken her re: being picked as a Wizard are the colour choices and to a lesser extent the armour.

She's wearing white and gold - traditionally, these are Cleric/Paladin-type colours.

She has some armour on - shoulderguards, the weird bustier which looks like armour, and generally it's a kind of a "Light armour" look, not a "no armour" look, despite Wizards being non-proficient in armour (as we see from photos of the spread this is still true in 2024).

Her magic is also gold - traditionally, Arcane magic is blue or purple, and Holy or Divine magic is gold.

The staff does lean Wizard but not very hard - in D&D, many casters potentially have magic staves.

If I didn't know this was a D&D image, I'd have immediately guessed this was a World of Warcraft Priest - everything about it screams WoW Priest - she's levitating, her eyes are glowing gold, she's got a golden shield around her, she's wearing dark-and-light armour with earth tones (which is 90% of WoW Priest class-specific armour), she's using a staff (as WoW Priests do), her armour is a mixture of cloth and a few tougher-looking bits, and even the background looks like she's a Titan facility.

Like, you could not make a more perfect picture of a World of Warcraft Priest, thematically, without jamming another guy in who was getting healed by them. And this broadly true across various other fantasy games - gold magic is almost always divine magic, and the floating/glowing-eyes deal

I still like the image, but I think someone new to D&D but familiar with videogames (which is going to be most people new to D&D) may well be confused by the sheer amount of gold and white into not quite getting what a D&D Wizard is. I think she should probably have been more lightly armoured, and using a different colour of magic - probably blue or purple.

That I say is a feature, not a bug in this sort of approach. For once we would actually see these different lifespans having an effect, and experience what it means in practice.

Sure, but I 100% guarantee that after your first campaign or two of humans aging to death or elderly status, you will be surprised to see the next group of adventurers are solely beings with lifespans over 300 years, and your "extensive downtime" is calibrated for those with human lifespans (as it would have to be).

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Other than the fact that she's black, how in the heck is that "Storm"?

She's also levitating, has glowing eyes, and is in a power pose. Storm also kind of alternates between a black-and-gold and white-and-gold outfit depending on who is drawing/inking her, and sometimes her eyes and lightning are blue, sometimes white, sometimes gold.

If we're being real, a lot of it will be "black woman with powers = Storm" quasi-racism (I'm not sure that's quite the right word, but it's something like that - a profound narrow-mindedness or ignorance re: black characters with powers - it is unfortunate so many are electricity themed - and the cure for that is, much as people scream and kick about it - more black characters with powers). But also, I don't think it's helpful to pretend the whole levitating, glowing eyes, power pose thing isn't 100% Storm's trademark way of arriving on any given combat scene. I guarantee that if we get another X-Men movie, we will see Storm in that pose.

But I must ask you a question - Do you know what happens to a toad when it’s struck by lightning?

 

[Yaarel]

You become immortal at level 15, when you can cast Clone. Makes me wonder why anyone would want to become a lich...

There are many methods to become immortal.

4e utilizes the Epic Destiny. Players choose which kind of immortality they want for their character.

At level 21, methods of immortality include:
• Archmage
• Avatar
• Saint
• Demigod
• Elf
• Fatesinger
• Draconic Incarnation
• Primordial (Elemental)
• Glorious Spirit (Primal)
• Fury of the Wild (Primal)
• Archlich
• Darklord (Shadowfell)
• Prince of Hell
• Winter Sovereign (Archfey)
• Storm Sovereign
• Cosmic Soul (Psionic)
• Diamond Soul (Monk Psionic)
• Grandmaster of Flowers (Monk Psionic)
• God Emperor (Human)
• Martial Archetype
• Thief of Legend
• Avangion (Dark Sun)
• Dragon King (Dark Sun)

And many others.

For 5e, level 21 grants immortality, and the method for it is an Epic feat. Those who want an "epic portfolio" can pick it up here as a feat. Some concepts can relate to several feats to choose from.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I think the only thing that might weaken her re: being picked as a Wizard are the colour choices and to a lesser extent the armour.

She's wearing white and gold - traditionally, these are Cleric/Paladin-type colours.

She has some armour on - shoulderguards, the weird bustier which looks like armour, and generally it's a kind of a "Light armour" look, not a "no armour" look, despite Wizards being non-proficient in armour (as we see from photos of the spread this is still true in 2024).

Her magic is also gold - traditionally, Arcane magic is blue or purple, and Holy or Divine magic is gold.

The staff does lean Wizard but not very hard - in D&D, many casters potentially have magic staves.

If I didn't know this was a D&D image, I'd have immediately guessed this was a World of Warcraft Priest - everything about it screams WoW Priest - she's levitating, her eyes are glowing gold, she's got a golden shield around her, she's wearing dark-and-light armour with earth tones (which is 90% of WoW Priest class-specific armour), she's using a staff (as WoW Priests do), her armour is a mixture of cloth and a few tougher-looking bits, and even the background looks like she's a Titan facility.

Like, you could not make a more perfect picture of a World of Warcraft Priest, thematically, without jamming another guy in who was getting healed by them. And this broadly true across various other fantasy games - gold magic is almost always divine magic, and the floating/glowing-eyes deal

I still like the image, but I think someone new to D&D but familiar with videogames (which is going to be most people new to D&D) may well be confused by the sheer amount of gold and white into not quite getting what a D&D Wizard is. I think she should probably have been more lightly armoured, and using a different colour of magic - probably blue or purple.

Yeah, fair points. It reminds me of WoW as well. It of course is in realistic art style unlike WoW, but the clean armour design with nonsensical metal bits seems very WoW to me. Which is fine, but not really my favourite. Personally I prefer something grittier, with wear and tear, dirt, feel of material. More Warhammer, less Warcaft. And yeah, it definitely has a lot of stuff that would read as priest in WoW context, but then again, D&D cleric has somewhat different imagery so it is not that confusing here.

Sure, but I 100% guarantee that after your first campaign or two of humans aging to death or elderly status, you will be surprised to see the next group of adventurers are solely beings with lifespans over 300 years, and your "extensive downtime" is calibrated for those with human lifespans (as it would have to be).

I mean I don't suggests that this would be the standard rules, just something optional for a group that is on board with playing this way in the first place. And of course one can calibrate the passage of time so that no one actually dies from old age, just becomes venerable. Like for example if the campaign takes roughly thirty or forty years of in-universe time.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Yeah, fair points. It reminds me of WoW as well. It of course is in realistic art style unlike WoW, but the clean armour design with nonsensical metal bits seems very WoW to me. Which is fine, but not really my favourite. Personally I prefer something grittier, with wear and tear, dirt, feel of material. More Warhammer, less Warcaft. And yeah, it definitely has a lot of stuff that would read as priest in WoW context, but then again, D&D cleric has somewhat different imagery so it is not that confusing here.

Yeah I'm kind of surprised, given the cover art for the 5E PHB, which I'd argue is significantly gritter than the general "pink/purple, Star Trek-meets-ren faire" look that has dominated 5E and most '10s fantasy art (which I don't hate, just find to be mid - still better than most "dungeonpunk" of the '00s imho!), that at least this piece is much more in a cleaner, less-gritty, more "power fantasy" kind of deal. One which wouldn't look out of place in a MOBA character line up from 2017 or something. It's still a good piece, and it's good to see D&D get this kind of more expensive approach to art but I was hoping to see 5E 2024 trend a little more faux-realist - especially as, generally, culturally, I think fantasy designs are going more, rather than less faux-realist - you can see this videogames, TV, and so on (superheroes are too, I'd argue).

 

[Minigiant]

Depends on edition. In 1 or 2e, even 3e, healing & especially magic were different. Spells like Haste aged you. Healing was 1 point a day with rest and while the Realms had a plethora of healers it was generally assumed they were rarer in other settings and a cleric can only heal so much. You could very well be in your characters 40s even by the time you’re 9th level, let alone 15th or 20th.

Why is the wizard Hasteing themselves and not the fighters?

 

[Minigiant]

If Wizards are already level 20 while youthful, why would they CHOOSE to stop being youthful?

Also, with one more level, even the Human Wizards can literally become immortal.

Most wizards dont make it to 20. Most PCs stop adventuring by Tier 3.

 

[Yaarel]

Most wizards dont make it to 20. Most PCs stop adventuring by Tier 3.

Depending on the setting, most Human mages might not reach level 20. But player Humans are the outliers of such statistics.

Even lower tier mages have access to magic for health and youthfulness. Even an Alter Self spell can be youthful and healthy. Magic items help too.


Regarding high tier play, D&D neglects the development of the high tiers. In earlier editions, the ad hoc rules fell apart at the higher tiers. This "tradition" has lingered. 4e tried to think thru what high tier play should look like. Generally I prefer more powerful upgrades of abilities, rather than hoarding lots of fiddly abilities.

Each tier is its own genre. The superhero genre occurs during the "Grandmaster Tier" (levels 13-16) and the "Legend Tier" (levels 17-20). These tiers are different magnitudes of superheros.