D&D 5E (2014) Lots Of Art (and some Warlock stuff)

[JeffB]

As underwhelmed as I am with art so far, it could be a lot worse...Dennis crabapple Mclain kinda bad..

 

[GravyFingerz]

Thanks, mate! It was the first (but not last ) piece I did for 5e, and I'm quite fond of it!

Can't wait to see more of your 5e art!

 

[Sword of Spirit]

While I like the elven village, it really seems more high elf than wood elf to me. What does a high elf village look like by contrast?

This is more of a Rivendell, (which strikes me as conceptually high elven, regardless of specific Tolkien subspecies identity), where I would see wood elves more like Lothlorien or Mirkwood.

- Contrast that red dragon with these red dragons.

That dragon outside the window is awesome. It definitely inspires emotion. I now want to set up that scenario in a campaign, just so I can do something like...

DM: "You hear a gust of wind strike the side of the building and the floor trembles slightly, dust rising off the neglected tomes. A shadow passes over you, and you turn to see..."
*Show picture*

Even better--I want to be the player while my DM shows me something like that.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Here is the most recent information about warlocks that I'm aware of:

http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4ll/20140303

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/dndqa/20140307

Which, amongst other things, tells us that their spell slots refresh on a short rest.

 

[tuxgeo]

While I like the elven village, it really seems more high elf than wood elf to me. What does a high elf village look like by contrast?

This is more of a Rivendell, (which strikes me as conceptually high elven, regardless of specific Tolkien subspecies identity), where I would see wood elves more like Lothlorien or Mirkwood. . . .

Stopping there for emphasis: Mirkwood YES! Lothlorien NO!
In Tolkien, the elves of Mirkwood were the "wood elves." The elves of Lothlorien (formerly "Laurelindorenan") was the center of ("high") elvendom on middle earth.

Galadriel was a cousin of Feanor, for crying out loud!
She was one of the Noldorin elves. She had seen not only the starlight before the moment when Sun came into being, but also the light of the Two Trees before the Sun came into being, as well as the time when the Two Trees were slaughtered, leaving a single fruit of each of the Two Trees to be thrown up into heaven to become the Sun and the Moon.

Galadriel had agreed to go with Feanor on his assault against Melkor (forever after to be known as "Morgoth"), and followed her cousin Feanor away from the Undying Lands in a northerly direction. When Feanor stole ships to chase Morgoth, Galadriel was not among the number of such traitors and thieves. Galadriel marched across the frozen North of the world with the other Noldorin elves to reach Middle-Earth without the use of ships.

Galadriel was an unspecified number of years old: she was born before there were any (quote) "years" (close quote) in any spoken vocabulary.
We may as well assume that Galadriel was of an age of anywhere from 2 billion years to 6 billion years -- by that time, who's counting?

Her land of Lothlorien was immensely beyond ancient. Galadriel is most definitely a High Elf -- or there isn't one.

 

[doctorhook]

Got one in my group- and I'm currently (mostly) running 4e.

I think it comes from playing in the 3.5 era, as it was kind of habit to say we were playing "x point y" at that time.

Gotta nip that in the bud! Honestly, decimal notation was a pretty awful way to name the system. I blame Monte Cook; I've heard he names a lot of things poorly.

Galadriel is most definitely a High Elf -- or there isn't one.

But can she teleport once per short rest? /trolling

 

[Ebony Dragon]

The warlock looks like she is going trick or treating. Dislike.

Love the Red Dragon.

The common belief that warlocks don't eat candy is just not true! They go trick or treating the same as everyone else.

 

[Hussar]

Comments like the following:

Somebody who's been following D&D anytime since 2008 would know what an edition-war-y thing to say this is. It's possible the author knew that, but I have to question the judgement of any writer who begins his pitch with an insult to a portion of his readers.
/snip.

Oh, hey, if you'Ve followed his blog or Boing Boing at all, he's all about the edition war. Made no bones that he loathed 4e and thought it was terrible. If you're a big 4e fan, you are not one of his readers.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Stopping there for emphasis: Mirkwood YES! Lothlorien NO!
In Tolkien, the elves of Mirkwood were the "wood elves." The elves of Lothlorien (formerly "Laurelindorenan") was the center of ("high") elvendom on middle earth.

Galadriel was a cousin of Feanor, for crying out loud!
She was one of the Noldorin elves. She had seen not only the starlight before the moment when Sun came into being, but also the light of the Two Trees before the Sun came into being, as well as the time when the Two Trees were slaughtered, leaving a single fruit of each of the Two Trees to be thrown up into heaven to become the Sun and the Moon.

Galadriel had agreed to go with Feanor on his assault against Melkor (forever after to be known as "Morgoth"), and followed her cousin Feanor away from the Undying Lands in a northerly direction. When Feanor stole ships to chase Morgoth, Galadriel was not among the number of such traitors and thieves. Galadriel marched across the frozen North of the world with the other Noldorin elves to reach Middle-Earth without the use of ships.

Galadriel was an unspecified number of years old: she was born before there were any (quote) "years" (close quote) in any spoken vocabulary.
We may as well assume that Galadriel was of an age of anywhere from 2 billion years to 6 billion years -- by that time, who's counting?

Her land of Lothlorien was immensely beyond ancient. Galadriel is most definitely a High Elf -- or there isn't one.

Of course. As I understand it, the Noldor were a small minority of elves left in Middle-earth. But (and I'm not an expert by any means) as I understand it most of the elves of Lothlorien were not of the Noldor variety. Which is why I gave my disclaimer about the Tolkien subspecies as not really what I was getting at.

The point is that Rivendell had buildings and "civilization," while both Lothlorien and Mirkwood elves dwelt in more natural environments. The impression I've gotten of D&D elves is that wood elves are the ones who live in the more natural end of the spectrum, while high elves live more on the "built" end of the spectrum. But the impression I also have gotten of D&D elves is that even the high elves use a lot of nature in their buildings. So when I see that piece of art with buildings of stone in the forest, I wonder what they are going to do for high elves. Shining citadels on an island?

It just seems someone forgot to take into account the intentional contrast between the subspecies when they assigned that village to wood elves. (Do we know that's what it is, or was that reviewer just giving us an interpretation?)

 

[Hussar]

I love the art direction here all looks very much like brushwork paintings rather than CG art. Yes, yes, I know it was likely mostly done on a computer, but, that's not the style. And, much of the work has a very distinctive style. Holds together very well. It's not like you have a bunch of random images jammed together in the same book. There is a single vision here that I'm really digging.

That being said, yeah, dog piling on the elf pic. That's not a good image. Weird pose.

But, nice touch on the dragon image - two female and two male adventurers, and nothing remotely looking like a chain mail bikini. Well done.