Icons of the Realms: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle, Why WizKids Got the Character Classes Right!
Dungeons & Dragons the Cartoon
Upon arriving in the realm of Dungeons & Dragons the friends meet Dungeon Master who would become their guide to the new world. He bestowed each of the friends a magic item and a class. They are as follows:
Hank, the Ranger who was given a magical bow that fired arrows made of magical energy. Hank is the de facto leader of the party.
Eric, the Cavalier, who was given a magical shield. Eric is the stereotypical “Rich Kid” who is sarcastic and egotistical. He spends most of his time complaining about the realm they are trapped in. While not the bravest and despite his other flaws, Eric deep down has the heart of a hero.
Albert who becomes known as Presto, the Magician. While not great at magic he does make good use of the Hat of Tricks Dungeon Master gave him. Presto is the stereotypical nerd of the time.
Diana the Acrobat, who was a gymnast in the real world and wields a magical staff/javelin. Behind Hank she provides leadership to the group and helps temper Eric’s outbursts.
Sheila the Thief, who wears a Cloak of Invisibility she is in possession of a heart of compassion. She seeks not only to take care of her younger brother Bobby, but the party as a whole.
Bobby the Barbarian, the youngest of the party and little brother of Sheila. Bobby is impulsive and swift to anger. He wields a magical club that can cause shockwaves while slammed to the ground.
The last member of the party is a baby unicorn named Uni who Bobby adopted in the first episode.
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons in the mid-80’s
At the time of the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon the game itself was still in its first edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D). Second of AD&D would not be released until 1989. In the first edition of AD&D the choice of classes and subclasses in the “Player’s Handbook” released in 1978 were:Cleric
Druid
Fighter
Paladin
Ranger
Magic-User
Illusionist
Thief
Assassin
Monk
Bobby’s Barbarian class comes from Dragon Magazine #63 published in July1982 in an article by Gary Gygax titled “The Big, Bad Barbarian.” In this article Gygax makes mention that “this is the first class he is releasing out of the new classes [he had] proposed for the expansion of the AD&D rules.” In this article barbarians were a subclass of the fighter. They were hearty survivalists skilled in both fighting and the skills needed to live in hostile environments.
Diana’s Acrobat class comes from Dragon Magazine #69 published in January 1983. In the “From the Sorcerer’s Scroll” section of the magazine Gary Gygax introduced this class in his article “A “split class” for Nimble Characters: the Thief-Acrobat.” Gygax would describe this not as a subclass of the Thief but rather the first split-class for AD&D. “Upon gaining sufficient experience points to achieve 6th level ability as a thief, the character desiring to specialize as a thief-acrobat must seek out a character already in this profession to train him or her” (Dragon Magazine #69, page 20). Once the character splits their class they no longer advance in the thief skills of pickpockets, find traps, open locks, remove traps, read language, and would never gain the read magic skill. In their place, they begin to advance in the new skills of tightrope walking, pole vaulting, jumping, and tumbling.
The last of the party’s non-player handbook classes to be introduced would be the Cavalier. This class was first introduced in Dragon Magazine #72 in April 1983. From the Sorcerer’s Scroll” section of the magazine Gary Gygax introduced the class in his article “The Chivalrous Cavalier.” Here we are introduced to the Cavalier, a subclass of the fighter class based on the knights of old. We also are introduced to the idea of the especially dedicated cavalier which gain a duel subclass as a cavalier-paladin.
The Wreck that is Stormwreck Isle
In August of 2022 WizKids released their “Icons of the Realms: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle '' miniature set as a tie-in to the new fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set. As mentioned this has caused an uproar with many D&D fans due to the classes listed for each of the cartoon characters on the back of the packaging.
Below is the back of that packaging. We see that Eric the Cavalier is referred to as a Paladin. Presto the Magician is listed as a Wizard. Diana the Acrobat is referred to as a Rogue. Lastly Hank the Ranger is listed as a Fighter. Big changes from the cartoon classes in many people’s eyes. They claim WizKids didn’t do their research but actually WizKids didn’t miss the mark.
Why WizKids got it right with their Stormwreck Isle miniatures
Here is why I think that Wizkids actually got it right with the classes they listed for the cartoon characters. This is looking at the source of what these miniatures are based on being a Starter Set for new players. Due to this I only compared the classes to the fifth edition Player's Handbook.
Eric the Cavalier: In the current fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons there is no cavalier class. However, as discussed, the Paladin was a subclass of cavalier in first edition AD&D. So now that Paladin is a class of its own, it makes a lot of sense for Eric to now be associated with the paladin class.
Presto, the Magician: this is the one class most people have no issue with as he is listed as a wizard. In the first edition AD&D game, during the time the cartoon ran, his game class was called Magic-User. The change of the class name to Wizard would not happen until the release of Second Edition AD&D in April of 1989. The class name wizard would be the go forward name into today’s fifth edition.
Diana the Acrobat: is listed as a rogue. Much like the magic user class in first edition AD&D the Rogue class was called the thief class. With the release of the second edition we would be introduced to the rogue class. This class had two subclasses which were the thief and the bard. Today these subclasses are their own stand alone classes as the bard class and the rogue class. During the time the cartoon was airing the in game class for Diana the Acrobat was the split-class thief-acrobat. As there is no acrobat class in fifth edition going with the thief aspect of her class, which is now the rogue class, makes sense.
Hank the Ranger: this one I will admit is a bit of a head scratcher. While the Ranger class started as a sub-class of fighter starting in the third edition the Ranger became a stand alone class. So while on one side WizKids missed the mark changing Hank's class an argument could be made that at the time the cartoon aired Hank’s primary class was in fact a fighter.
Where I feel the mark was missed
Where I feel WizKids and Wizards of the Coast really missed the mark was by not including all six members of the cartoon party and Uni in the art of the new Starter set and the miniature set. The biggest issue I had with the Starter Set was that after flipping through the material, and enjoying the art featuring the cartoon characters I discovered that the pre-generated characters for the adventure were not based in any way off the heroes of the cartoon. While the cartoon party members were all human, Dungeons & Dragons is a game filled with many playable species and the pregenerated characters reflect that. Adding in four more optional characters based off the cartoon characters would have been a simple thing to have added to the new Starter Set. The figures at least in class do match those of the pregenerated characters, however the races are completely different save for the sole human who is in fact a paladin. I think Eric would be overjoyed that he was the only one to make the cut.
So there you have it, a bit of history on the Dungeons & Dragons Cartoon, the heroes of the show, their classes, and how those classes once looked compared to today. My hope is that in the near future WizKids and Wizards of the Coast release a miniature set containing Sheila the Thief, her little brother Bobby the Barbarian, and his companion Uni the Unicorn. I also would love to see a miniature of avenger the Force of Evil upon his Nightmare mount.
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