Character Creation

Right? I love artificers. Looking forward to it.

Character creation using AI art; a journey.

The last few months I have been fascinated by playing with AI art generators for fantasy characters. It is often a struggle to wade through Google images to get a character picture I like. Instead, having an AI art generator (I use Nightcafe) makes the job either very easy or very frustrating as these image generators are not without their limitations. On the other end of the spectrum, they can come up with jaw-dropping amazing art.

So I was toying with a Blood of Vol paladin, and I let Stable Diffusion have a go at it. I made about 20 images in total and I discarded the useless ones (with clear warping).

The first image that passed the first glance test:Do you want to know how you can spot AI art? Watch the hands. Count fingers. Our friend here has 6 on both hands. That said, I was very impressed with the axe. Sadly, it was the face that made me discard this concept, as it doesn't seem very heroic. But this guy would make for a cool NPC. Did someone order a BADASS? You got to give props to the glowing eyes. The sword got messed up, but I was super impressed by the breastplate. Look at that detail and the engravings over the entire armor!This is where AI art generation can get a little annoying. I tried to morph the picture above and asked the AI generator to not give it glowing eyes. This is the result. On the one end, it fixed everything wrong with the picture above it in terms of warping. The sword is now held properly. There's blood splatting. But the face is.... well. It reminds me a lot of Lord Soth. Again, an absolute BADASS image, but not that useful for a player character (unless you are playing a Super Evil Dark Blood Lord).This is an image generated with a different preset so you get a different art style. Discard the absolutely bonkers warped weapon. Out of nowhere, the background guy got generated without a prompt. Sometimes AI art throws a surprise at you like that. And while both characters look cool (weapon aside), neither has their face revealed so it makes for poor character portrait art.And then, after many tries, you hit the jackpot. An image gets generated that looks cool, doesn't have too bad warping (red sword decides to meld with the ground, but hey..) and most importantly, generates a sympathetic face. With a little cropping, this will make a great character portrait!Wait, did I say 'character portrait'? And just like that, you adjust your prompt just right to generate the picture you stick with! Look at that handsome fellow!

At least when AI takes over the world, we can say it once gave us great art.

Joking aside, it’s pretty sweet. Thank you for the process breakdown. I messed around with one a few months ago, but it was a simple one with very generic results. I like his look, the red armour, the very paladin, brooding stare. Does he have a name?

@Nictorah do you mind me playing battle smith as you will need to manage two tokens for me in a battle - one for my PC and one for my steel defender. Otherwise I'm good with armorer instead.

Going with Mark of Warding Dwarf . Hope this would help to incorporate my PC into story as House Kundarak would be the right to provide help with the found skyship security.

My first artificer was a battlesmith. I have no issue with the extra token. Can’t wait to see what you’ve got.

"one magical item worth 200 gp or less". Could you help me understand where to find magic item cost. I assume 200 gp is a common item

See, coffee first, then post… this was my mistake. I corrected it later.

@GM I note it explicitly mentions a wondrous item, so, say, an adamantine plate armor to go with my pretty character picture is not an option and should be in my wishlist instead?

Oh, name. I did some research and decided my character will be from Karrnath (large Blood of Vol presence there) and since I somehow got more money than most people will earn in their lifetimes, I thought I'd be a knight. So I get *fancy* name. And while I considered the Dragonmarked route for a moment, I decided that would smudge my character's identity too much, so he's a scion of a 'normal' noble house. Thus I present to you....

Armat ir'Vallam
As the third son of a lesser Karrn warlord, Armat ir'Vallam was groomed to lead troops in the Last War, something he dutifully did for a little over a decade before the conflict ended. The utter annihalation of Cyre and all its forces was a pivotal moment for him. To see his nemesis so utterly destroyed at first seemed like a sort of blessing, a herald for victory even, but the gravity of the Mourning eventually settled in, and the victory was a hollow one indeed.

Peace brought something not seen in generations; time for introspection. There was of course the matter of rebuilding and rearming but once such matters were out of the way, many former Warlords began to ponder what to do next. Armat's father was content to rule over his holdings. Seeing trouble brewing among his siblings (all of whom thought they would be the best successor to their aging father), Armat decided to remove himself from the brewing fight for succession and left to explore the Mournland to see what has become of his old enemy.

Armat is a man robbed of purpose struggling to find a new goal in life. The utter depravity of the Last War has also left scars on his mind. If life was so fleeting, so easily cast away, what purpose did it hold? His religion, the Blood of Vol, has ever been the source of his strength. Concerned with his own mortality, he decided that he should try to achieve its penultimate goal; life eternal.

If question still actual my PC could have either of or moth of these goals:
1. As salvation business is growing The Warding Guild seeks to start providing their services secure retrieved artifacts. My PC is sent to gather information and evaluate business potential.
2. Seek to find powerful artifacts at Mournland to build his own power/abilities.

Greyword: Definitely still applies.

With Halloween tomorrow, I think it’ll be best to kick off on the 1st. Does everyone think they’ll be ready?

Khulod: You may spend your 1000 gp on upgrading your armour to Adamantine if you wish. And yes, the wondrous item was to let you buff your character a bit as the current players have.

I'm ready.
By the way, I've purchased Half Plate for 750, best armor I can buy for money, so thanks for that 1k starting money.
That and some protective spells should work for tanking role in the team ... at lest in a combat against "martial" enemies

I just need to do gear and finishing touches. I'll finish up today.

All done!

Orange? Force??

So far I've only gotten one magicked. The green one 'Envy' does poison damage now.

Malak will use averages for HP

1st level max = 10 (Ranger)
2nd level = 6 (Ranger)
3rd level = 6 (Ranger)
4th level = 5 (Druid)
5th level = 5 (Druid)

+ CON (+3 x 5 levels) = 15

Total = 47hp

Thanks for re adding me Nictorah. Continuing our conversation from the public recruitment thread. I think I am going to let Mordacky stay in the past and start fresh. I believe you said everyone is level 5? Are there any other character creation (crunchy) elements that I should take into consideration? Also from a storyline perspective what should I consider?

Should we work in a shared background between the other two that are joining as well?