D&D General One Piece of Art VIII (People): What Piece of D&D Art Inspired You to Love a D&D Personage?

[Malmuria]

Obligatory Planescape Post. This is Ylem, from Uncaged. Ylem is a rogue modron that is somehow part Slaad, and conducts magical experiments.

Honorable mention: the Time of the Twins cover art

 

[Bedrockgames]

View attachment 259061

Artist: Clyde Caldwell
Source: Knight of the Black Rose
Subject: Lord Soth

Doomed Lord Soth has always held a special place in my heart and this novel was the first D&D novel I read that was only Dragonlance adjacent.

This picture and the Knight of the Black Rose were big ones for me

 

[Yaarel]

I love the Merlin archetype, even more so, its modern shift from being a mentor of a hero, to being the hero of the story himself.

So, my favorite Wizards are a youthful knight embarking on a new adventure, with his sword staff in hand − or wand, or better yet, his psionic mind.

D&D tends to go for the premodern Merlin archetype − with long hair, long beard, long dress, and androgynous in an elderly way.

I want my character to be the youthful hero, the clean-shaven Wizard, with crew-cut and masculinity. The Fighter hero look can be Wizard hero look too. Even some muscle. With a Constitution of 14, the Wizard can be quite fit!



This Wizard from Strixhaven is toward the Heroic-Merlin archetype.

(Arrogant Poet by Billy Christian 2021)

 

[J.Quondam]

Artist: Wylie Beckert
Source: Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, alternate cover
Personage: Iggwilv/Tasha
Rationale: In fact, I know next to nothing about Tasha, since I'm not terribly vested in D&D canon and never cared for her characterizations in the past. But I love the muted aesthetic of this illustration, and the dark fairytale-like imagery depicting her past made me genuinely interested in learning her story.*


* After reading up on the background, I'm still not particularly interested in the lore. But I like the picture, nonetheless.

 

[Enrico Poli1]

Elminster, from Clyde Calwell

 

[Bupp]

Can an action figure be art?
Warduke LJN Action Figure.

 

[Voadam]

Can an action figure be art?
Warduke LJN Action Figure.
View attachment 259333

I'd say that sculpts are absolutely art and the action figure inspired a lot of young D&D players.

But there was some cool art of him in D&D products as well.

From XL-1 Quest for the Heartstone where he is a pregen PC.

And AC1 Shady Dragon Inn

 

[Maxperson]

Dove Falconhand

 

[jmartkdr2]

https://greyhawkonline.com/greyhawkwiki/images/2/20/Cat_Lord01.jpg

From the 3.5 epic level handbook - Cat Lord, the prince of all catboys... er, felines.

I never really thought about cat-people in dnd before, but I had a lot of fun imagining what they could be like back in the day.

 

[Richards]

I always liked this portrait of Iggwilv (although I was never much of a fan of her name!). I also had a player who liked it enough (I was running the players through a different adventure from that issue, which is how she saw the image in the first place) that she decided it would do as a portrait of her own PC, a "witch" (reskinned wizard) named Delphyne Babelberi.

Johnathan