D&D (2024) Speculation on the art in the new core books

[fluffybunbunkittens]

Lidda is a 3e halfling, which means they are just humans directly scaled down, which makes them look utterly ridiculous when next to anyone else.

Old editions had hobbits, 4e had weird elongated heads, 5e has giant heads... I don't know where they should be, but not making them the literal height of toddlers, would help with the scaling down-ness.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Do I really want hobbit-like halflings? ponders

 

[darjr]

The movie had human proportion hobbits. Did you appreciate them?

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

The movie had human proportion hobbits. Did you appreciate them?

Ah, the worst parts of the movie. They just look wrong.

Loved the dwarf.

 

[Parmandur]

The movie had human proportion hobbits. Did you appreciate them?

I liked Cooper, but I do think that was a bit of a misstep not giving the Halflings odd head proportions.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

The movie had human proportion hobbits. Did you appreciate them?

I think live-action movies have a hard time consistently depicting humans as other species without just making them "smaller" (edit: or just being humans with pointed ears and/or different skin colors). LOTR did a great job making hobbits feel different. DDHAT just shrank humans and they didn't feel like proper halflings to me. Often, dwarves (like in the original D&D live-action movie) are played by humans that are slightly shorter in stature. I like wide, thicc dwarves.

I think animation is a better medium for worlds with many non-human species. I think Scanlan and Pike from Critical Role would be good depictions of halflings if they didn't have the pointed years. (I think gnomes should be a bit more fey-like, to be honest.) Has CR shown artistic representations of halflings yet?

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

I think live-action movies have a hard time consistently depicting humans as other species without just making them "smaller" (edit: or just being humans with pointed ears and/or different skin colors). LOTR did a great job making hobbits feel different. DDHAT just shrank humans and they didn't feel like proper halflings to me. Often, dwarves (like in the original D&D live-action movie) are played by humans that are slightly shorter in stature. I like wide, thicc dwarves.

I think animation is a better medium for worlds with many non-human species. I think Scanlan and Pike from Critical Role would be good depictions of halflings if they didn't have the pointed years. (I think gnomes should be a bit more fey-like, to be honest.) Has CR shown artistic representations of halflings yet?

I also don't think elves should be humans with pointed ears, even in LOTR. I think the skull structure and eyes should be more non-human, like they did in 3E concept art. But later artists don't always follow original concept art rules.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I also don't think elves should be humans with pointed ears, even in LOTR. I think the skull structure and eyes should be more non-human, like they did in 3E concept art. But later artists don't always follow original concept art rules.

I suspect WotC got pushback over the alien-looking 3E elves.

 

[Horwath]

I suspect WotC got pushback over the alien-looking 3E elves.

I liked them,
hell, I would just reprint 3/3.5e PHB art instead of what ever was 4E/5E PHB art

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I like everything about the 5e halfling other than the tiny feet. Halflings should have big feet, and if you don't want them to look too much like Hobbits, just give them shoes.

Honestly, I still think that the best way to do Art in D&D in 2024 is to have artists us ANY EDITION as their inspiration. Give us ALL the various types of halflings, drow, elves, and so on. On top of THAT, make them look like as many real-world human ethnicities as possible. Make it clear that YOUR character can look however you want them to.