Check out D&D's redesign of Bahamut

Bahamut is sporting a new look in several Dungeons & Dragons-related material. Earlier this month, Wizards of the Coast released Arcana Unleashed, a magic-themed rulebook that included a chapter on magical patrons. One example given as a patron was Bahamut, who received a nifty piece of new artwork. While Bahamut has traditionally been depicted as a massive metallic dragon, this new version depicts Bahamut as having an overwhelming magical aura that radiates from his body.

Earlier this month, Polygon previewed several variant covers to the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons comic series, which included another new look at Bahamut, as illustrated by Antonio José Manzanedo. This shows off Bahamut's magical aura wings and aura, along with a scale of how large the dragon god is compared to its gold dragon servants, which look miniscule by comparison.

The upcoming Dungeons & Dragons comic will feature a statblock of Bahamut, which will likely be one of the more powerful creature statblocks ever created for D&D 5.5E. Several other iconic dragon statblocks will also be featured as extra content in the comic.

 

[stonemage]

So are the gold dragons that surround him in those images the seven ancient gold dragons that act as his typical retinue?

Cuz if those are ancient golds then this Bahamut is truly massive.

Kinda plays into the Old Wizard and 7 canaries image.

 

[aco175]

When I met Bahamut, he was 10 times... No 100 times... no 1000 times bigger than great gold anyone has ever seen.

- My cleric, the last time anyone asked about how powerful his god is.

 

[Weiley31]

I love that he's pretty much a 5.5E gold dragon with Platinum colors and all the catfish whiskers, webbed wings, and hair are all PLASMA ENERGY!!!

 

[Piperken]

Bahamut's wings/aura has stars in them!

 

[saviirkad]

I'd like to see Tiamat get a similar treatment. Like the old Bahamut looked like a unique dragon, and this looks like a dragon  god.

 

[Nathaniel Lee]

So... no point in buying the existing Bahamut Wizkids mini because they'll probably release a new one soon...?

 

[Nathaniel Lee]

I love that he's pretty much a 5.5E gold dragon with Platinum colors and all the catfish whiskers, webbed wings, and hair are all PLASMA ENERGY!!!

I don't know... he looks quite different to me. The horns or whatever those things are on the back of his head are very different... his wings are traditional dragon's wings instead of whatever the gold dragons have... and his tail doesn't have that long fin running the whole length like the gold dragons do...

 

[BB Shockwave]

That first picture has been out for months now, I remember posting it on Minisgallery.
The Arcana Unleashed one is different, with the blue flaming wings that are fan-like and extend to the tail like on Brass, Gold and Copper Dragons.
Must say I do not care for the spikey neck things, and the pointy muzzle. Looks too much like Final Fantasy's Bahamut.

So... no point in buying the existing Bahamut Wizkids mini because they'll probably release a new one soon...?

Oh there is, definitely. Wizkids will not do Colossal sized 250-400$ worth minis anymore (they have not been selling well, hence why Tiamat, Bahamut, Balagos, Arveiaturace, the Phoenix, Neothelid, Astral Dreadnaught and the Tarrasque have been on 50-60% discount several times this year already. ) We would have gotten other Colossal Chromatic Dragons after Balagos, but sadly, low sales put a stop to that line, and Bahamut was listed at 450$ originally but a few days later got discounted to half that. And even so, he never sold out. (The platinum breath variant did).

I do not mean Wizkids will not make a new Tiamat and Bahamut based on 5.5E art - they likely will. But they will probably be true Gargantuan sized, and not oversized on Colossal bases.

It'll be interesting to see what they intend to do with him. I don't recall him ever doing anything other than showing up (or not showing up, depending on who you listen to) in Dragonlance, subverting his image.

But after Weis and Hickman did that, I don't know how much more one could do with him that's particularly interesting and couldn't be done by an ancient silver or gold dragon.

You don't "do" much with a literal deity. You can pray to them, perhaps meet them and get a quest, or a boon, or if you have done some amazing service and worship them, get selected as their proxy.
But do not forget, gods like Bahamut or Tiamat can have several avatars of theirs active on the material plane, so that does not mean you cannot interact with them, even in combat. Both of their avatars have stats in Fizban's.

 

[RoughCoronet0]

It's interesting to compare this to the last piece of art I'd seen come out for Bahamut in the "Beast and Behemoths: Young Adventurer's Guide."

I liked both of these arts a lot, not sure which I prefer.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

When I met Bahamut, he was 10 times... No 100 times... no 1000 times bigger than great gold anyone has ever seen.

View attachment 448872

- My cleric, the last time anyone asked about how powerful his god is.

"Yeah well MY dad could beat up YOUR dad!!"