Thursday, September 16, 2010

The Eld -- in Living Color!

Thanks to Luigi "Artikid" Castellani, I can show you the first ever illustration of an Eldritch warrior rushing into battle with his swords drawn.

20 comments:

  1. Very cool. I'd been meaning to ask - was the reddish skin originally inspired by the rather ruddy elf archer on the cover of B2 Keep On The Borderlands, or is it just a "Mars Thing?"

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's from a variety of sources, including the fact that Mr Spock was originally supposed to have red skin but the idea was nixed because NBC thought he'd look "too demonic." The Eld are all into demonology, so I just ran with it. And, of course, there's the Mars thing, obviously.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mirror Universe Bearded Spock with red skin, would have been demonic indeed! And back to the picture, how do you adjudicate two-weapon fighting, James?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Melniboneans of Barsoom! Love it:)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Indeed. The whiff of sword and planet about it is cool.

    ReplyDelete
  6. James,

    Two-weapon fighting is treated as a single attack with a +1 bonus to hit and the damage dealt is the average of the two weapons used for the attack.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The world needs more red-skinned elves.

    Since they're monsters/NPCs wouldn't they just get two attacks?

    Your rule seems not to penalize two-weapon use at all... any class restrictions or conditions?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Your rule seems not to penalize two-weapon use at all... any class restrictions or conditions?

    Yes, I limit two-weapon fighting to fighting men (and thieves, when I allow the class) with Dexterity 13+ and the second weapon must be shorter than the first (and thus doing less damage). The only "penalty" is that you can't wear a shield while fighting in this way, just like using a two-handed weapon, except with an increased chance to hit rather than an increased damage range.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Fair enough. I find the whole multiple attacks idea in OD&D goes against the explanation for hit points. If hit points are not an explicit representation of damage taken, and a combat roll represents an abstraction of a whole minute of activity, then having extra attack rolls for any weapon (monster or not) seems a tad contradictory.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Oh God, not another evil elf dual-wielding scimitars.

    ;)

    Just kidding. Cool illo. And I like the Eld too.

    ReplyDelete
  11. It is very nice, I certainly like the concept. I absolutely love how colorful he is. If you don't mind a little artistic criticism though, for some reason I'm having a lot of trouble parsing his feet. I suppose on his right foot the hooking shape at the bottom is meant to be his toe, but the hard line above it makes me want his toe to be higher up, such that his foot is facing us rather than seen from the side. I just want to completely erase that lowest shape. The left foot, on the other hand, appears to be twice as large as it should be.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Wait, wait, on closer inspection, I think I finally get it. That lowest shape is the toe of his left foot, not his right, and the shape above it is the folded down top of his boot, not his left foot. There's still something subtly off there, given how long it took me to figure that out.

    ReplyDelete
  13. @paul: This was a "quickie" so I actually expected a lot more of criticism and on different parts of the drawing...
    1)The swords have no width, they are two-dimensional.
    2)The left (forward) arm is very thin compared to the right arm.
    3)The groin is too low and the waist somewhat too rigid for the movement the character is doing.
    As I said, this was a quickie...

    @Iglesias: I hadn't thought of the unnamable trademarked drow. Now I can't stare at the drawing i made without cringing... ;P

    ReplyDelete
  14. "There's still something subtly off there, given how long it took me to figure that out."

    His right foot is turned too far outward given the direction his thigh/knee are going, making the lower leg look twisted.

    Anyway, I dig the character design.

    ReplyDelete