D&D 5E Iconics in 5E

[GMforPowergamers]

The Heroes of the Feywild book had iconic characters, and used them in just about a perfect way. Confining iconics mostly to their own books gives you a lot more room for interesting stories-in-pictures, without risking sticking everyone with a really uncomfortable art decision someone made six years ago (3E players know exactly what I'm talking about).

Pelor of the burning hate for the win

 

[Wormwood]

Morgan Ironwolf on Facebook.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Where's my copy of "Fallen Lands?"

Oh, there it is. Let's see:
p. 84, drawing of "Falon, human warpriest"
p. 126, drawing of "Dendric, human knight"
p. 149, drawing of "Shara, human slayer"
p. 172, drawing of "Uldane, halfling thief"
p. 195, drawing of "Albanon, eladrin mage, with Splendid the pseudodragon"
p. 197, drawing of "Kathra, dwarf mage"

p. 320, full-page art with caption, "Albanon casts a spell of teleportation to take him back to his tower in Fallcrest"

. . . and I may have missed some in that book.

Do they crop up lots of times?

To my mind the value of iconic characters is that you see them whenever you have a need for them. Need a bard? it's Gimble. Need a wizard? it's Mailee. See them portrayed at various levels in various settings.

That makes them iconic examples of their class.

Just having a named picture, not so much IMO.

Cheers

 

[Wormwood]

Just having a named picture, not so much IMO.

Actually, I would say that you are describing pre-gens, not iconics---but this may me more of that quibbling over terms stuff I've heard so much about

 

[tuxgeo]

Do they crop up lots of times?

To my mind the value of iconic characters is that you see them whenever you have a need for them. Need a bard? it's Gimble. Need a wizard? it's Mailee. See them portrayed at various levels in various settings.

That makes them iconic examples of their class.

Just having a named picture, not so much IMO.

Cheers

Good point.

Another point: iconic characters should have miniatures made of them.

The Vadania mini is expensive on eBay, and I don't have one; but I have multiples of Regdar, plus at least one each of Aramil, Devis, Eberk, Kerwyn, Krusk, Lidda, Mialee, and Tordek.

Lanin, Dothal, and Carn reportedly appeared in the second (blue dragon) Basic Game set for 3.5E.

There was a metal figure of a female wizard in the Chainmail line that looks like the iconic character named "Naull" in the 3.0 Adventure Game yellow-box set.

Was Soveliss ever sold as a mini?

 

[Klaus]

Do they crop up lots of times?

To my mind the value of iconic characters is that you see them whenever you have a need for them. Need a bard? it's Gimble. Need a wizard? it's Mailee. See them portrayed at various levels in various settings.

That makes them iconic examples of their class.

Just having a named picture, not so much IMO.

Cheers

Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (Forgotten Kingdoms Art)

This is the art gallery for Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms. Page 2 has most of the iconics, and more than once.

For some reason, the HotFallen Lands gallery is incomplete.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Dare I say it (gasp)?

[sblock]Resurrect Regdar!

Who's with me on this??? [/sblock]

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Well, 2e and 4e didn't have iconics, while 1e and 3e did.

2e and 4e don't seem to be as well recieved or as 1e and 2e.

Coincidence? I think not.

It may be coincidence, but I still think that I want to see some "iconic" characters. I kinda missed not having them in 4E. They were familiar faces and they added some context to the class-related supplements. "Okay, I know how Mialee, 1st level Wizard looks like. And this her as Archmage! Is that the kind of character development I want, can I see my mage going that direction?"

 

[Kaodi]

One element of the Iconics that I think could maybe be emphasized more is their history. You cannot duplicate the " playedness " of the Gygaxian Iconics, but you can give more of a sense of them actually having done things. 3e eventually got around to having the Iconics star in novels, but that is not necessarily the way to go. More, I think it should be more a feeling that when you see an Iconic doing something or being somewhere in a picture, or described as doing so in the text, that should count as part of that character's story, not merely a " demonstration " . I do not know if I ever really got this feeling in 3e with the Iconics.

 

[gyor]

Heroes of shadow had icons for blackguards, vampires, gloam hexblades and the like and so will heroes of elemental choas. In fact I have the iconics, or at least some of them as my cellphone back ground, such as Scar and Anise with her Djinnling.