D&D General One Piece of Art III (Magic Items)- What D&D Art Inspired You to Love a Magic Item

[overgeeked]

Welcome to part three in the art appreciation series- One Piece of Art! Prior columns can be found here:
Part I (Classes)
Part II (Monsters)

Today's topic-

What D&D Art inspired you to love a magic item?

However, for this column, we are going to start with something ... unusual. One particular piece of art MUST BE RETIRED. That's right- there is one piece of art that I am just putting in the Hall of Fame of Magic Item art. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. No one can select the following piece because ... well, to channel 80s great Yaakov Smirnoff, In Soviet Russia, Magic Item Chooses You!

Artist: Bill Willingham
Source: White Plume Mountain (Jeff Dee cover re-release, 1981)
Magic Item: Blackrazor

Also? If this blast from the past made you smile, please feel free to help Darlene out!

Save Queen Anne!, organized by Darlene NLN

Queen Anne is dying. She was born in 1901 in a small town in North Carolina. I’m doing all I can to save… Darlene NLN needs your support for Save Queen Anne!

www.gofundme.com

Funny. Seeing the title of the thread that's literally the first thing that popped into my head.

Hall. Of. Fame.

 

[overgeeked]

The Gnomish Submersible from the Basic D&D Book of Wondrous Inventions.

 

[James Gasik]

The Gnomish Submersible from the Basic D&D Book of Wondrous Inventions.

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I'm shocked nobody has posted art for the Apparatus of Kwalish yet!

 

[Richards]

The image below inspired me to write my first "Bazaar of the Bizarre" article (published in Dragon #200): "Fourteen Keys to Adventure." I liked the image of the evil-looking mage with the massive key around his neck and wondered just what exactly it might do.

Ironically, much later on in the waning days of AD&D 2nd Edition, they printed a compendium of the various types of magic items that had been created for the game, and they used this exact picture as an illustration for the "keys" section. Full circle!

Johnathan

 

[TerraDave]

(This is for Daoud's Wondrous Lanthorn, obviously, though she is also wearing slippers of spider climbing).

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

This is hard. But if I had to choose, I guess I'd pick this:

 

[DrunkonDuty]

I was more moved by the descriptions and history of the magic items (mostly the artifacts) , rather than the art.

 

[aco175]

 

[RuinousPowers]

Got to love cursed magic items!

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

You don't see swords and armor that gleamed with a megawatt sheen anymore, and I kinda miss it:

Heck, if we're reaching outside of D&D, the most iconic magic items that really stuck in my imagination and got me lost in adventure, it's these

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Especially when it started glowing. To my 8-year-old mind, it was the most awesome and magic item ever.

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Every single one of these, but especially the sword. I'd pay big money for an exact replica. IIRC someone actually made one at some point.