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

 

[Umbran]

You must be an absolute delight at an art gallery.

Mod note:
Making it personal.

I could make this personal - I could make statements about you, personally, at this moment of when you have made an error. I don't expect you'd like it.

So, don't do it to others, hm? Thanks.[/c]

 

[Yaarel]

Be that as it may, that merely means that elves have better vision compared to humans. An elf might still have poorer eyesight than elves typically have, and wish to correct that with glasses. I assume that the structural eye issues that affect vision in humans can exist in other species too. There probably are hawks with "poor vision" for a hawk, even though that poor vision might still be better than human vision. Now hawks have hard time accessing eye glasses, but that's not necessarily true for elves.

And ultimately in a game this glasses thing is really about aesthetics and representation. If a person wants their nerdy elf to have glasses in a setting where that technology exists because they think that fits the imagery they want, let them!

And be that as it may. I feel it is unnecessary to quibble about how excellent excellent is.

The "nerdy Elf" can where eyeglasses, because there are eyeglasses that are magic items.

For example.

High tier glasses might be a pair of Gems of Seeing, a powerful magic item.

Glasses that See Invisibility.

Glasses that Detect Good/Evil (Planar Origin).

Glasses that see into Material, Ethereal, Fey, and Shadow, simultaneously.

Glasses of Clairvoyance.

Glasses of Arcane Eye.

Glasses of Scrying.

Glasses that communicate two-way while projecting an image of oneself remotely.

Glasses that Read Languages.

Glasses that display a spellbook as an overlay.

Glasses that display History checks as an overlay.

Glasses that see an aura of attitude, Friendly, Neutral, Hostile.

Glasses that see Hit Points and health status.

Glasses that detect degree of wealth or poverty.

Glasses that see thru doors.

Glasses of Beast Sight, to look thru the senses of nearby animals.

Glasses of Locate Creature.

Glasses of Detect Minerals.

Glasses of Detect Traps and Hazards.

Glasses of Counterspell.

Glasses of Detect Magic. Tho this, I feel, every Elf should have, along with Advantage in Arcana checks.

I feel Elves shouldnt automatically exhibit Darkvision. Some cultures magically gain it, like Drow and Wood. Other Elves lack it and might wear glasses that have Darkvision.

There are many reasons for an Elf to look nerdy.

 

[Yaarel]

If you have to faff about switching eyes with contact lenses, why don't you wear glasses? They are quick and easy to take on and off, and don't make you eyes sore.

Heh. The last glasses I had fell into the ocean. I was looking down at the waves, there was a seabreeze, that was that. For me, dealing with glasses feels like a nuisance. Similarly, I dont wear a wristwatch.

With the contact lenses, I switch, and forget about it. The other eye gets a break. I see distance with the one eye, and read upclose with the other eye. I feel both eyes get exercise in different ways at different times. The parallax judgment of distance is the same. My eyes maintain good moisture and never get sore.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

View attachment 354608
Aside from the diversity, including fantasy diversity such as species, most of them appear young.

/s
The wizard on the cover of The Secret of Bone Hill is too "Marvel Super Hero-ish" with the skin-tight lycra and high cowl. The wizard is clearly a rip off of the Scarlet Witch and Dr. Strange. Where is her tome, staff, or even backpack? It's obvious that the broken staff and the book on the ground belong to the spellcasting skeleton she's whuppin'.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Heh. The last glasses I had fell into the ocean.

And you have never lost a contact lens?! Your glasses didn't fit properly, go to a better optician.

 

[TwoSix]

/s
The wizard on the cover of The Secret of Bone Hill is too "Marvel Super Hero-ish" with the skin-tight lycra and high cowl. The wizard is clearly a rip off of the Scarlet Witch and Dr. Strange. Where is her tome, staff, or even backpack? It's obvious that the broken staff and the book on the ground belong to the spellcasting skeleton she's whuppin'.

This is why I don't trust this newfangled '80s stuff. Back in the '70s, we understood what fantasy was REALLY about.

 

[Yaarel]

And you have never lost a contact lens?! Your glasses didn't fit properly, go to a better optician.

Heh, I have never had a problem with contact lenses. I set it and forget it.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I clearly said "ideals" of beauty, plural. There are many ways to be beautiful.

In D&D traditions, there are over a hundred different kinds of Elves, conducively different ethnicities. And each ethnicity has a wide array of appearances, such as Drow with skin from silvery white to obsidian black, and ranges of grays of various hues like bluish or purplish, in between. All of these forms express various cultural ideals of beauty.

So since glasses are part of an ideal of beauty, there would be elves that wear glasses. Just like there would be elves that are large and muscular, or elves that are curvy. All of which are cultural ideals of beauty that go beyond skin color, which is the only aspect you just listed.

All Elves officially have "keen senses", especially eyesight and hearing. If there even exists an Elf who lacks keen eyesight, it is a remarkable anomaly.

So it is impossible for an elf to have poor eyesight for an elf, and use corrective lenses to achieve more than human sight? There are no elves born blind or deaf? There could not have been a magical incident that damaged an elf's eyesight? All of that would be under "remarkable anomalies"?

I appreciate this way of explaining where you are coming from better.

At the same time, I disagree with your premise.

I am nearsighted but dont care. Contact lenses work fine for me. (I wear one lens at a time, and alternate right or left.) If I personally could cast the Heal spell and conveniently see fully without contact lenses, I would do so immediately.

At the same, for many reasons, all Elves have good eyesight.

Right, you would make that choice, therefore you don't think it makes sense to depict powerful, beautiful people with glasses, because glasses are not for the powerful, the magically capable or the beautiful. They are only for those who lack those qualities.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I was replying to a hypothetical that it was a thing wizards do, with the implication it was therefore common to that class?

I did not get the impression that just because it was a thing a wizard COULD do that it therefore had to be common to the class. Hence why I brought up the bladesinger wizard wielding a sword, something that is possible, but not common per se.

 

[Yaarel]

So since glasses are part of an ideal of beauty, there would be elves that wear glasses. Just like there would be elves that are large and muscular, or elves that are curvy. All of which are cultural ideals of beauty that go beyond skin color, which is the only aspect you just listed.

It is true that Elf culture cares about clothing and fashion.

In the 2024 image, the Wizard reads as an Elf wearing glasses that are fashionable.

So it is impossible for an elf to have poor eyesight for an elf, and use corrective lenses to achieve more than human sight? There are no elves born blind or deaf? There could not have been a magical incident that damaged an elf's eyesight? All of that would be under "remarkable anomalies"?

Apparently, there are no Elves born deaf or blind.

I did mention the possibility of a magical curse. One can target an Elf with a Blindness or Deafness spell.

It is a reallife folkbelief trope that Elves can curse each others fates, to appear elder or so on, or in this case perhaps blind or deaf.

Right, you would make that choice, therefore you don't think it makes sense to depict powerful, beautiful people with glasses, because glasses are not for the powerful, the magically capable or the beautiful. They are only for those who lack those qualities.

Heh, something like that.

On the other hand, glasses when magic items are a status symbol, conveying a magical otherworldly perceptiveness.