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| 3d Art @Wolfgang animation |
This vaguepost brought to you by a specific D&D sloptuber video. Even though I think they're a bit like the "fast food" of DnD content, this type of content is enjoyable to me. Avantris, PunkeyDoodles, wolf gang animation, etc. Lots of very talented animators and artists make these, so I often find myself watching them when doomscrolling. But the specific video above got my attention.
First, that must be one bad ass commoner/peasant that they can solo kill an entire party of adventurers trying to steal their cheese wheels and sacks of 8 gold piece from a chest they keep in the corner of their one room peasant hut. But while amusing, the concept of this video wasn't what I wanted to vaguepost about. Instead, it was a later animation about the stronger and stronger adventurers coming to raid the peasant's home that he slowly builds into a dungeon to protect it.
This image really spoke to me for a specific reason. See, in D&D and adjacent media, we often use inspiration from real life mythology, legend, literature, and so on to infer what the fantasy or secondary world actually looks like. As in, we're playing in an imaginary space, but we still visually and conceptually imagine what's going on. Usually this is taken from our known sources of fantasy and sci-fi media; movies and games and books and the like. But when it comes to how our characters would look, specifically high level or progressed characters, I notice a really big disconnect here between how the secondary space or fantasy world would actually look instead of how we assume it would look in regards to "high level" adventurers. This youtube short really illustrates this point well.
On the left; we see a group of average or low level adventurers in their basic roles. Thief, Cleric, Fighter, Mage, etc. We are well used to this, as most of us have played a bunch of characters like this and are people we related to in our own real life. The blacksmith's son, the peasant-turned-mercenary, the wise-cracking city thief with a heart of gold. We can easily imagine these characters in our minds.
On the right we see a pair of very high level adventurers. I can look right at them and see a ton of implied detail; these characters are armed with extremely powerful magic items and/or skills they've acquired throughout their adventures. The one of the left has the angellic look, probably a very powerful cleric/wizard that can see in all directions, has unlimited flight with the seraphim wings on their back, magic holy fire, healing spells and magic roses which can probably control nature or charm, and a bunch of other stuff. The one of the right has a badass skull barbarian warrior thing going on; no doubt with +2 magic sword, invincible death knight armor, helmet which grants intimidation advantage, but also a magic staff with a hand which implies they can also do magic despite being martially minded as well, once again showing a high degree of progression. I also quite like it because the eclectic, almost clashing colors and aesthetics are very reminiscent of a high level adventurer carrying around a whole armory of rare and magical loot. It's got the high fantasy aesthetic down.
But notice a disconnect here. If I told you to imagine a pair of high level adventurers, would you be able to imagine something more like the image on the right, or would you think of something more like the image on the left?
"Canon" High Level Adventurers
When we try to apply D&D and fantasy-esque rules and concepts to traditional media and literature, we can select a certain group of characters and people to be those universes versions of "high level" characters. Something like a Conan, an Aragorn, a Kratos (REALLY high level), or a Dumbledore maybe. Characters who are the movers and shakers of their universes and we either see or know are highly experienced with many victories under their belts. We use these as our baseline in the secondary fantasy space to what a "high level" adventuring player-character might be like. But notice that, at least in terms of their aesthetics, they really don't have the same "look" and feel as a high level fantasy adventurer. They're too put together (given they're designed characters for literature or visual cohesion, not produced thru a long campaign), too well-crafted with a singular vision behind them. Even when thinking of their capabilities; you can usually point to one or two things they're really good at (usually fighting), a few elements of their background or special skills, and then one or two magic items or companions, but these really pale in comparison to even mid-level adventurers in a D&D style game who already have a whole suite of magic items, spells, and various other campaign-specific blessings or resources to them.
Like Conan is the prototypical Fighting-Man who follows a very by the books path of adventurer, conqueror, king (so named the system) exactly as a "name level" Fighter would in D&D. But when you imagine Conan, you don't imagine him with a bunch of bottomless bags or immovable rods or a bunch of spell effects or beneficial mutations or whatever; he basically only has the magic Atlantean sword and maybe that snake-girdle-belt thing that might give him resistance to magic from the People of the Black Circle story. D&D characters reaching the same level of Conan certainly do not share this sparseness; it's not just a lot of gold, fame, and stats with like one magic item. Elric has Stormbringer which might as well be the magic item in that universe, it's not the strength of the character specifically, it's about the scars and direct evidence of their many adventures. Something that TTRPGs excel in as players experience them one after another, but something that literature and movies and so forth really don't hit the same vibe. We KNOW Conan has had all these adventures, but you don't SEE them just by looking at him. Now obviously Conan is a bit more of a low-fantasy, grounded type of fantasy setting compared to what I'm talking about but you see what I'm saying?
The closest examples come from video games, given their closeness with TTRPGs. Like a high level character in Morrowind for example actually looks the part, with insane combinations of light, medium, and heavy armor layered with robes and glimmering with multiple magic shields and glowing effects where they almost pick their gear for fashion instead of stats since they're so far above the average challenge now. This is more the kind of thing I'm looking for if you want to portray a high level adventurer character as they would appear in universe- a character arc in a world based on progression and game mechanics fantasy at the end of its growth cycle.
