D&D 4E Manticores will have beards again in 4E

[ThirdWizard]

That picture in the article looks extremely silly to me.

 

[Klaus]

Mythologically, Shedu and lammasu are pretty much the same thing, so I'd say this is a pretty non-guffaw-inducing picture.



BTW: Klaus, those beasties are wonderfully inspiring. I like that manticore; well done. Your artwork skill has grown exponentially over the last few years.

And what exactly is the vulture-man one?

Demon, Vrock.

 

[Klaus]

Hey, that's a nice-looking manticore! (As far as the critter can look nice, of course. )

Klaus, have you ever done pictures of the various sphinxes? I think the gynosphinx in MM looks good, but we're missing the other sphinxes...

Dude, I did over 2000 counter images for Fiery Dragon, including ALL SRD monsters and some very... similar... to non-SRD ones.

Counter Collection Gold and Counter Collection Digital have all sphinxes (andro, gyno, hieraco and cryo).

 

[Cthulhudrew]

I hope minotaurs actually look like bulls again instead of horned pekingese.

I hope they don't go back to the old bull-headed man look. Myself, I prefer the more bestial look in the MM- something that is still humanoid, but feral and with horns. I tire of the "let's just slap an animal head on a human body" artwork for all of those creatures. Not very imaginative.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

The creatures that are actually described with human features in myth and folklore should keep those features, IMO.

The problem with that is, depending on your source, you might have two different looks for the same creature.

 

[Gundark]

Whatever. Some things we'll be happy about, some things we'll complain about, and DMs will do what they want.

Maybe we'll get Womanticores in the 5th edition of the game.

Dave

Hooray for boobies!!!

 

[JDJblatherings]

I prefer the 3E version as well. It fits the "bearded" description very well. Assume a scared townsfolk sees one and escapes successfully. He would, probably, describe that as a man-like face with a strange beard.

I mean... you know Dürer's picture of a rhinoceros?

That's not a real one, but the result of such a description - armoured... like the bearded.

Cheers, LT.

There are multiple species of Rhinoceros actually. Some do in fact look armored others don't.

 

[Shade]

As long as they don't look like the Sci-Fi Channel Original Motion Picture: Manticore, I'll be content.

 

[lukelightning]

In a world of elves and dwarves and gnomes and halflings and orcs and goblins and bugbears and troglodytes, why do we have to have all these monsters that are "part animal, part human? Humans are only a fraction of the intelligent races.

Sure, there are a few non-human hybrid creatures out there, e.g. drider, but in every case these monsters are somehow related to the humanoid race, either physically or ideologically (like some sort of evil orc demon thing).

So why a human head for the manticore, and not an elf or dwarf or orc head? Why would a marilith have a human woman's body as opposed to an orc woman's? What's so special about humans? Wouldn't it be cooler to have a manticore with the head of a hobgoblin? Or a male dwarf-ish medusa, with a beard of snakes?

 

[zen_hydra]

In a world of elves and dwarves and gnomes and halflings and orcs and goblins and bugbears and troglodytes, why do we have to have all these monsters that are "part animal, part human? Humans are only a fraction of the intelligent races.

Sure, there are a few non-human hybrid creatures out there, e.g. drider, but in every case these monsters are somehow related to the humanoid race, either physically or ideologically (like some sort of evil orc demon thing).

So why a human head for the manticore, and not an elf or dwarf or orc head? Why would a marilith have a human woman's body as opposed to an orc woman's? What's so special about humans? Wouldn't it be cooler to have a manticore with the head of a hobgoblin? Or a male dwarf-ish medusa, with a beard of snakes?

If the elves and dwarves want monsters that have elfish and dwarfish bits, then they should come up with their own myths and legends. Seriously, these things have human traits because they are part of human culture. Please note that dwarves, halflings, and elves do not look so significantly different from humans that a shedu with a dwarven head would be appreciably different from one with a human head.