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

 

[Gravenhurst48]

And nay-sayers wonder why no one is willing to say “oh well, to each their own” and let it drop.

“It’s garbage!” Is such a hyperbolic statement that it practically guarantees another 1000 posts. It’s miles beyond “yeah, I don’t like it”. Some posters are complaining that their opinions aren’t being respected and are being challenged,and yet “it’s garbage!” Is basically challenging the opinions of everyone who does enjoy it.

Like it or don’t like it. But come on, it’s a competently rendered illustration that pretty much fits in with every other piece of art this edition. People are treating it like it’s a sign of the apocalypse. No wonder people are responding with confusion and questions.

Edited: deleted my reply.

 

[Gravenhurst48]

Except the part where you’re demonstrably wrong as has been repeatedly pointed out to you.

Overgeeked, you ARE wrong!

 

[Gravenhurst48]

Really? Really?? Really???

Seriously! This is a head slap moment.

 

[Gravenhurst48]

Agreed, that in 5E it isn't explicitly written---but that is the nature of 5E, and as such is completely up to the DM.

Now, compare it to magic in 1E:
View attachment 353389


Was I? Where? My original objection was simply:



Yeah, I agreed they could be magical items. Not initially, of course, because magical "lens" and such in our games have always been more like contacts. And I didn't "assuming the character has bad eyesight" so I can "argue against it". I assumed it, because, well, she IS in fact wearing eyeglasses... I had no intent of arguing it one way or another until others brought it up.


I know, except, well, magic can restore poor vision in AD&D. Again:
View attachment 353389


Again, was I, Where? Her wearing glasses was never any issue about "actual rules".


Again, never said DM fiat couldn't represent a spell like whatever it is she is supposed to be doing. I said there is no spell that specifically does it.

So, to be clear: glasses: magic could restore impaired vision. Casting: no spell as written does everything shown in the image. FWIW, I'm not the only one wondering just what is supposed to be going on here or what she might be casting.

Nothing odd about it.


No, I'm not. In fact, my first post about it was agreeing with another poster, as was pretty much everything I responded to in my first post.

Wait? Casters can have more than one spell going on at once!?! Get outta town!

And, once again, I'm not ignoring any of those things.

Not odd, not strange either.


Sure. Did I ever say there wasn't? Did I? No, I don't think so.

(bolded) and that is one of the main reasons I don't like this image. How is this representative of a D&D "wizard" compared to any other caster options in 5E? It's "pretty", colourful and energetic, sure, but bland, lacking imagination, and has no D&D "wizard" aspect to it IMO.


Hmm...? Ok, what did I assume in the context that others didn't? And what, exactly, do you think I am "arguing against"? Because I don't see myself as arguing anything, other than my opinions---which are neither right nor wrong, simply mine.


Really!? Show me where it says they are are caused by a "temporary effect"? Here, I'll help:
View attachment 353402
Scanning... scanning... nope, no temporary at all. Having impaired vision can be a condition, caused by an other effect (such as aging), lasting until countered (by magic!!) or for the duration specified by the effect (aging lasts a pretty long time, hopefully!).


Absolutely true!


Yes, wrongly, but it isn't temporary, as nothing about conditions specify they must be temporary. So...

is incorrect.


Which is fine with me. I'm only defending my interpretation because people continue to want to discuss it.


Well, it isn't magical lasik, just lesser restoration. And who can say it isn't an assumption in "most fantasy campaigns"? People can provide anecdotal evidence, but its just that, anecdotal. It hasn't come up often over the years, but anecdotally, for myself, every game I've played in where it has come up has had magic which can restore impaired senses (particularly sight and hearing).

I mean, why have magic in your game which can regrow lost organs such as eyes, but not have magic that can help it due to natural causes such as aging? I don't see any sense in that. Its like saying you can have an airplane, but not a kite.


Sure, Presto wore them in the 80's. Artwork has them. I'm not saying you can't, I never have. I'm saying (and all I've ever said about it) is that in a world of magic, it seems odd to me to have them when magic could help so you don't need them. I know I don't like to wear my glasses when I do, but I understand others might and don't have any issue if people want to. I might wonder "why?" if I know it is someone who could get lasik, for instance, and they might have any number of reasons, most probably that they don't feel it is safe. Which, in D&D I wouldn't see any different from an NPC saying they "don't trust magic" or something. Odd to me, but I never said it is wrong or implied any such thing.

Go EZO, I am in your corner!

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Go EZO, I am in your corner!

Somehow, I dont think that's reassuring to them...

 

[Gravenhurst48]

Lol, as opposed to the nerdy boy fantasies that have permeated D&D art since its inception?

Let's go boys! BOYZ! BOYZ! BOYZ!

 

[Gravenhurst48]

I just wanted to note that there was a decade in which American artists who were familiar with manga and anime made their debuts in various science fiction & fantasy fields. That decade was the 1970s. Frank Miller and Wendy Pini are the most famous of that generation; like the others, they hung around Asian grocery stores and scooped up imported manga and pirated videotapes, well before most of us had done more than heard about manga or seen anything anime more sophisticated than Kimba the White Lion and Soeed Racer. Pini’s Wlfquest series debuted in 1978, Miller’s run on Daredevil (his first work where he put manga influence to work) in 1979.

Which is to say that successful American commercial fantasy art is not older than D&D. But it is older than Moldvay/Cook Basic, and the same age as the AD&D1 Player’s Handbook (in the case of Pini) and DM’s Guide (in the case of Miller). In effectiv terms, it’s as old as D&D, and if D&D can have ancient well-established conventions, then so can American fantasy art with manga and anime influences. They aren’t news.

(Barlowe’s Guide to Extraterrestrials is also a 1979 release, and Barlowe was another American influenced early by Asian commercial art along with his Western influences.)


I could sit here and go on about Barlowe, P. Craig Russell, Donna Barr, Colleen Doran…but those are standouts. I’m inclined to agree. We were watching some of the Korean series Alchemy of Souls this week, and I kept thinking, “Now this is a way I love magic to look like.”

Yes, Wolfquest!

 

[Gravenhurst48]

I'm ambivalent about this one. I like the glasses: she's a wizard, and wizards are squinty weirdos who spend too much time looking at books. As a squinty weirdo who spends too much time looking at books, I approve. It's also nice to see an iconic wizard who isn't a crusty old bloke once in a while.

OTOH, they've sexed her up way too much. As others have said, the superhero/thirst trap/wish fulfillment stuff is completely over the top. Personally, I find it grotesque. That's before we even get into the details of her horrible, horrible outfit. She has zero (0) armour protecting her (generous) chest, but she does have massive and completely pointless spaulders on her shoulders? And a bunch of weird shiny filigree nonsense around her boobs, just to make them stand out more, in case we hadn't noticed them? And whatever the hell is hanging on her hips? Five or six different pieces of awkward white cloth instead of a good honest robe? Also, good luck getting those bangles off without a saw.

I sentence the artist to 10 years hard study and drawing of actual traditional costumes, until they understand how clothes work.

Edited: Show me more, I am good with accentuating detail!

 

[Reef]

Show me more boobs, I am good with that accentuating detail!

And...I'm suddenly glad they're not trying to cater to all gamers...

 

[Autumnal]

This image is an oxymoron. The glasses are to show she is wizened though she is youngish,

Um, no. They show that she is a good-looking youngish adult, an accomplished magician, who needs to or has chosen to wear half-spectacles. They could be mundane corrective glasses or magical lenses of some sort, we don’t know. But mostly young people who wear glasses aren’t trying to look wizened, and nothing else about this image suggests an interest in doing so.

A young person trying to look wizened would probably go for a furrowed brow, wrinkles and mottling on exposed skin, greyed hair (likely constrained so as to look more homely), and so on.