D&D 5E Some thoughts on the Art in Tasha's Cauldron

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Beyond that it's interesting that none of the Orcish seeming people are being described as Half-Orcs, as the captions just say Orc. It's an interesting one as there's always being problems distinguishing Orcs and Half-Orcs. Most of the time they aren't that distinguishable unless they went with something like in early 3e where they tried to emphasize hunchbacks and more bestial features for Orcs, while having the ones with appearances most associate with Orcs being the Half-Orcs. I suspect many who do play Half-Orcs just want to play Orcs anyways. There's being a few examples in the past of trying to show Half-Orcs that look closer to Humans, but most of the time someone depicts a Half-Orcs they're just drawing an Orc. There's a similar problem with Elves and Half-Elves, being depicted as distinct in the art.

I actually had a plot point my campaign recently that half-orcs have a wide variation in their appearance, from almost fully human to almost fully orcish, much like half-elves are typically described, so a "human" NPC turned out to be a half-orc, meaning an ordinary (if large, lineman-sized) human had darkvision and ties to orcish bandits threatening the trading caravan he was leading.

Likewise, I'm really against the standardization of tiefling appearances. (Maybe that took place in 4E, which I skipped.) I find them a lot more interesting if they range from shady-looking humans to cloven hoofed figures with tails and horns, but where there's no standardization. Even as they've gone more mainstream as a PC racial choice, I feel like they should still have an element of danger about them, and to me, one of the easiest ways to do that is to make them less predictable and cookie cutter.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Likewise, I'm really against the standardization of tiefling appearances. (Maybe that took place in 4E, which I skipped.) I find them a lot more interesting if they range from shady-looking humans to cloven hoofed figures with tails and horns, but where there's no standardization. Even as they've gone more mainstream as a PC racial choice, I feel like they should still have an element of danger about them, and to me, one of the easiest ways to do that is to make them less predictable and cookie cutter.

Standardization of Tiefling appearances is something that definitely took place in 4e, where they had a very specific origin from the not-really-a-campaign setting Nentir Vale. 5e has taken some baby-steps away from that. I definitely do miss the non-standardized 2e Tieflings, so I was quite happy that Rhys still looks like how she was depicted by Tony Deterlizzi.