Dungeon #124 - Who are these guys?

[Pozatronic]

The new "Iconics" are:

Drow Bard (male)
Tiefling Fighter (female)
Cleric of Wee Jas (female)

Old Iconics:

Human Paladin (male)
Elf Rogue (male)
Human Sorcerer or Wizard (male)
Human Ranger (female...maybe she's a half elf?)

I think they're not naming them or giving them levels so that they don't have to bother with writing them out. That way, they can use them for any module level without people complaining. That's my two cents.

 

[Desdichado]

Yeah, I'm just trying to figure out their race/class combinations. A little bit of backstory would be nice too -- otherwise all they are is art, which isn't much.

 

[Desdichado]

they are part of the Age of worms or whatever it is called adventure path. they don't want to give away too much.

Then why do they also show up in the illustrations for adventures that are not part of that adventure path?

 

[the black knight]

To confound overly curious readers like yourself?

 

[kilamanjaro]

They've been using their iconics ever since the "relaunch" of the mag. The original Dungeon iconics are on the cover of the first issue with the new logo. Since issue 124 they've added 3 more. I think Erik has said they don't have names or stats, they exist to make ordering art easier from non player artists and to give the magazine a consistent feel.

 

[Len]

Yeah, I'm just trying to figure out their race/class combinations. A little bit of backstory would be nice too -- otherwise all they are is art, which isn't much.

Art is exactly what they're for, as Erik Mona explains here. If they had specific back stories, then they could only be used to illustrate adventures in that one particular setting and time period.

 

[billd91]

The new "Iconics" are:

Drow Bard (male)
Tiefling Fighter (female)
Cleric of Wee Jas (female)

I can dig having a set of iconics to make ordering art easier and give the magazine a consistent look. I don't think I'd have chosen one of them to be a drow, though. They're too often used as villain characters. A drow iconic fighting with a drow villain or interacting with another PC might skew the reader's perceptions of the module or provider an unnecessary source of misunderstanding.

 

[Morpheus]

The new "Iconics" are:

Drow Bard (male)
Tiefling Fighter (female)
Cleric of Wee Jas (female)

Yeah, these are quite the combos for "Iconics". They are definitely trying to go an alternate route. (I mean, who would ever want to play a Bard? )

 

[LeapingShark]

Erik (or some other Paizoni) said somewhere that they deliberately made them shady characters as a change of pace, something along the lines of "these are not your momma's adventurers anymore!"

 

[James Jacobs]

Yeah, these are quite the combos for "Iconics". They are definitely trying to go an alternate route. (I mean, who would ever want to play a Bard? )

ME! Bards are my favorite class in D&D, closely followed by druids.

Anyway... just to clear up the mystery... the iconics we're using are indeed nameless. They don't have stats apart from a race and a class. When we order art for an adventure, it's much easier to say "This illo is of a barbed devil fighting a paladin" and then show the artist a picture of our iconic paladin rather than explain to the artist (who probably doesn't play D&D) what you should and shouldn't have a D&D paladin looking like or doing.

Currently, we have 7 iconics. The cleric of Wee Jas, the tiefling fighter, and the drow bard are the "stars" of Age of Worms, although you'll see the other four show up now and then (particularly the paladin; he's fun to illustrate in mortal danger). They'll show up in the other adventures too. By not pinning down their histories and stats, we can use them in any level adventure in pretty much any location, although we try not to use them in adventrues that are specifically set in the Forgotten Realms or Eberron.

We've got plans for the next four (barbarian, druid, monk, and wizard) and know roughly who they are and what they look like, but won't be introducing them till some later point... probalby not till after Age of Worms finishes up.