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May 20, 2012 -- 3:29AM, Sephyrill wrote:

May 20, 2012 -- 3:26AM, Lord_Steel2025 wrote:

However if we are going to use movies as our guidline I would say wotc can't go wrong with Avatar: the last airbender.

corrected :P

Take that back! 

May 21, 2012 -- 12:40AM, Luis_Carlos wrote:

There is a possible reason the druids don´t use metal. Animals can smell metal and they run away (Hunting with metalic weapons would be more difficoult).

Or even more practically, metal bits bouncing around on other metal bits tends to make quite a bit of noise, which makes hunting difficult.

May 16, 2012 -- 9:44AM, malisteen wrote:

What I want from female character art is the same thing I want from male character art.  Awesome fantasy people to be.  IMO art of D&D characters should always, always be concerned with and aimed at an audience that wants to be those characters, other concerns shouldn't even be on the map.

I don't think that's quite right.  There should certainly be pictures of parties in the middle of a TPK or running for their lives or otherwise not being awesome.  I'm not quite sure how to put that.  The audience wants to be those characters is a good approximation; the audience can imagine being those characters is slightly better.

And I understand that 'protection' isn't always the primary goal of fantasy adventuring outfits.  I understand that the barbarian is put in a skimpy outfit not so much to objectify them as to show off their massive muscles (though, if you do this with a female barbarian, she better have massive muscles - see DiabloIII barbarian for good example).  But if the character is wearing plate armor, then the aesthetic impression should convey some sense of "tank", and obvious gaps in the armor ruin that aesthetic entirely.

I don't think there's a need for all artists to depict all melee characters with massive muscles as a matter of necessity.  Yes, men and women who look like bodybuilders are preferable to women who look like porn stars, but that's not saying much.  Bodybuilding physiques aren't terribly realistic even on people who engage in hard physical exercise unless the person has a lot of leisure time for bodybuilding as an end in itself.  (If we're beign sticklers for realism, asymmetric muscles with the sword arm more developed would be what we'd get.)
I think that the reason barbarians, druids, and so on, can get away with armour that shows skin is that it can look a bit more thrown together.  But it shouldn't look as if once thrown it landed by chance in the shape of a push-up bra.
Yes, holes in plate are right out.  You can get away with bare arms and lower thighs and knees for mobility.  But both men and women should get that.  Dropped necklines on women in armour are a no. 
I don't mind form-fitting armour if it's magical - I can believe that form-fitting armour is more comfortable and easier to move in and so if a smith could use magic to do it then they would.
However, the main thing is that the stylistic choices apply equally to male and female characters.  If the female melee fighters are wearing form-fitting armour and don't have bodybuilder muscles then the same should apply to the men.