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

 

[Ruin Explorer]

1e first-level human wizard: "I'm 33 years old!"
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I mean it would be a little "Hello fellow kids adventurers!" when like, the other human party members hovering around 20. Little bit creepy actually.

 

[Reynard]

Wait what? I missed that! I guess I totally tuned out on all Daggerheart discussion when I heard it was going to be deck-based (which together with being set in a Victorian-era based time period and "weird dice" is one of my top "KILLLL MEEEEEEEE" dealbreakers re: RPGs). Also CR should probably ask the people running the extremely well-SEO'd fan site to stop using so much extremely ugly AI art, because damn.

Just for clarity, DH is not deck based in any meaningful way. It uses cards for your abilities just to make them accessible (and probably so they can sell cool cards) but no more or less than you can buy spell decks or whatever for other games. The one thing that might qualify as "deck based" is your number of options are limited to a 5 item "loadout" but that's it.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Shouldn't all of these old, disheveled and most importantly traditional wizards be able to comb those nasty beards with prestidigitation instead of letting them become a tangle such that it traps birds and small mammals?

I blame Radagast.

 

[Charlaquin]

1e first-level human wizard magic-user rolls 33 years old:
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You jest, but wasn’t Pathfinder’s iconic wizard canonically in his 40s in 1st edition? They fixed his age to actually reflect his appearance in PF2, but still.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I think there are quite a few genuine criticisms of several of the Radiant Citadel adventures (which are rather variable in quality and applicability), and that the sub-setting itself is not very well-considered (ironically for an attempt at a more diverse setting it definitely managed to "trigger" me - and I kind of mean that - re: my own disability, too) but it was definitely true to say that the Radiant Citadel ones got much more nit-picking than the previous collection, Candlekeep Mysteries (ironically a lot of the complaints about that revolved around how WotC had seemingly gutted a PoC adventure-writer's adventure).

I haven’t fully read through the book, but there definitely are legitimate criticisms. That’s true for literally every book, D&D or otherwise, that has ever been published. I was talking more about how some people were complaining about it before it was even published when basically the only things we knew about it were the name, some previewed art, and that it was written by a team of BIPOC writers. There were many ridiculous nitpicks on the previewed art, people complaining that adventure compilation books suck, and pretending to be concerned about the “quality of the writing,” which hadn’t happened for discussions of previous 5e adventure compilation books on this site.

 

[Charlaquin]

I haven’t fully read through the book, but there definitely are legitimate criticisms. That’s true for literally every book, D&D or otherwise, that has ever been published. I was talking more about how some people were complaining about it before it was even published when basically the only things we knew about it were the name, some previewed art, and that it was written by a team of BIPOC writers. There were many ridiculous nitpicks on the previewed art, people complaining that adventure compilation books suck, and pretending to be concerned about the “quality of the writing,” which hadn’t happened for discussions of previous 5e adventure compilation books on this site.

I seem to recall the most common critique of the art being that it allegedly looked too “Disney,” which… What?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I blame Radagast.

Everyone knows Radagast is a Druid (and unusually hygienic for his class).

 

[FitzTheRuke]

You jest, but wasn’t Pathfinder’s iconic wizard canonically in his 40s in 1st edition? They fixed his age to actually reflect his appearance in PF2, but still.

PF1e Wizard:

Edit: I hate to explain a joke, but for those that don't know: Wilfred Brimley (above) was 49 when he played the above character in Cocoon (1985). To be fair to him, he was playing an older character and some of what makes him look so old is probably a makeup job. But still.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I seem to recall the most common critique of the art being that it allegedly looked too “Disney,” which… What?

It was especially ridiculous because they previewed art with undead monstrosities and other horrific stuff at the same time as the art people were complaining was “Disney.”

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The wizards with real power were all wizened sages

That had already changed by 1989 though - like, sure Elminister is that way, but Khelben is a total DILF.

I mean check bro out here in 2E:

Sure, today that says "55 and dyes his hair", but in 1989 or whenever, that said, like 44 - also look at those forearms, bro is ripped.
Further Elminister gradually seemed to age backwards over 2E and 3E from "wizened sage" (as he also appears in BG3, I note) to "The Rock-era Sean Connery"/Hot Grandpa.

Also what about our buddy Raistlin, the absolute primo "kids want to be him" wizard of the '80s and early '90s:

I mean hello! He was explicitly physically frail, but also kinda-ripped and hot and definitely good-looking and definitely not old. Wasn't he like, in his 20s in the Dragonlance saga?