D&D 5E DDN Concept Art

[Li Shenron]

3) YRUSirius is right. Why's every monster short legged hunched over with short legs?
4) Halfings...as stated by many...Hate 'em! Skinny legs, tiny feet, gigantic square heads? Just...where to begin? On a BLANK WHITE PAGE! That's where! Hate 'em.
5) Giants...as with other monsters, 3/4 torso, 1/4 legs...and also spindly little twiggy legs? Hate it. Their giants for cryin' out loud!

You're right! What happened to the monsters' legs? Maybe WotC is going to start a marketing campaign that legs are badwrongfun, too much of a sacred cow to slay because the game must continuously evolve?

Besides joking, I do find those excessively short legs not just unrealistic but also disturbing (see the halflings, but even a bigger offender is the fire giant!).

Out-of-proportion heads, legs, weapons, muscles are all clearly design choices. They can do what they want of course, but IMHO they should really listen to the fanbase, and current polls in those articles are really not well presented at all.

 

[YRUSirius]

I like how well those concept scetches are drawn/painted. I just don't like this stylistic approach of the "comic gorilla" for most of the monsters. Use the same drawing technique but use the more "realistic" 2E/3E/4E proportions. Only use the "comic gorilla" when appropriate; the goblin for example or... a gorilla.

I absolutely adhore most of the humans and humanlike humanoids (elf, half-elf). I'd like to see a D&D rulebook in that kind of style.

-YRUSirius

 

[Zulithe]

Would someone at WotC please put the hair back on those halfling's poor feet? The madness brought upon us thanks to 4th edition must come to an end.

I just CAN NOT understand the desire to remove such an iconic and loved attribute. It made them distinct. Now they just look like small humans with slightly elvish ears. As if all of the classic races didn't already look fairly similar, they go and remove the one thing that sets them apart the most? I will never accept it.

 

[Klaus]

You say "iconic and loved", others say "really goofy". You say "thanks to 4th edition", when halflings have been slim and without foot-hair since the release of 3.0.

And finally: hobbits belong to Tolkien. You can have hobbits in your game, but slightly-overweight, barefoot "halflings" with hairy feet in a product unauthorized by the Tolkien Estate is sure to bring down the ringwrai... er, lawyers.

 

[Will Doyle]

I'm going to swim against the tide here and voice my support for the new halflings. I'm glad they're taking them back to their friendly hobbit roots, and I love that the artist has shown them going about their day-to-day business - for a discussion on races, I prefer this over face-on pics of adventurers. It tells you more about their culture, and I'd love to see it carried over for all the race concepts (including monsters - one of my favourite troglodyte pics is the trog doing a cave painting from the 4E Dungeon Survival Guide).

As for proportions, I prefer the widened heads - it makes them more traditionally "fey" looking, and more expressive overall. I've always disliked the "they're just small humans" style, which relies on clothing and hair-styles to differentiate them for humans (e.g. dreadlocks!). Stylistically, there's a definite Pixaresque quality to the artwork, but that doesn't really bother me at all. In fact, I like it!

 

[Will Doyle]

double post

 

[YRUSirius]

Halflings can still have slightly bigger heads, hands and feet. Why not like Tyrion Lannister or Willow?

Something like this:








Still easily recognizable as halflings and they don't have weirdly out-of-shape stretched heads and look like weird Bette Middler look-a-likes. You don't even need hairy feet for them. Oh, why don't you make the hairy feet or not a sub-race distinction? Call the current "stouts" "hairfoot" halflings, and voila, you can have 2E hobbits and 3/4E halflings at the same time.

-YRUSirius

 

[Hussar]

Yeah, I gotta admit, I'm not feeling it for the halflings. I mean, this:

is not the best take on a halfling I've ever seen. The feet and legs thing is just... urg.

 

[SkidAce]

I agree with what somebody else said. I like the mechanics and the way they are drawn.

I like most of the pictures. But not the bobble heads and the tiny feet.

 

[Klaus]

Let's do a quick experiment. Here are six females, drawn with the same hairstyle and clothing (to avoid judging someone by their dress). Each is based on a photo of a real person. I know the heights of each. Can you guys put them in order from shortest to tallest?



The purpose of this experiment: Jon has expressed a desire to have the short races *look* short, without resorting to drawing a barrel, a helmet or some other objec lying about for reference. And for my own education, of course. So, go for it!