This will be a simple update. I was crazy busy in the last week and did very little gaming. Jill’s team finished the “Bloodied Stings of Barovia” and the Fighter Stronghold Quest… and *just” started “Call of the Lost Goddess”. So really, not much. I expect I’ll finish SoA this weekend? We’ll see.
This week, I’m just taking a look my team now in its final form. In spite of a mediocre Jill and Christopher they have all become a very dangerous bunch. It is always the lesson of AD&D, levels matter more than anything else (as it should be, experience can make up for many deficiencies). Stuff matters too, in any D&D game it can make up for many other shortcomings.
*****
Jill is not strong, or hardy, or smart or wise. But she is quick, agile. And Charming. The stuff of legends, right Boo? She has become a great hero of her age. High Mastery with Short Bow and Short Sword. And she’s learning Flail, because sometimes you just need to crush something. She wears good armor, carries a nice shield, has a high dexterity, and some damage resistance… very tanky.Right beside Jill in the front rank is Jaheira. The two women are completely different sorts, but they trust each other fighting side by side.Keldorn backs up the ladies. He’s less tanky, but he hits *very* hard. And can dispel any magic defense.Christopher is Jill’s husband and a wise man, a profoundly capable cleric. But very clumsy. Horrible dexterity. At least, he’s good natured about it. He is, a wise man.Aerie is a beautiful soul. Also a massively powerful spell caster. Both a cleric and a mage she can unload almost any magic conceivable. But, I don’t think she knows she’s being watched…This is from the same set as the previous one. Honestly, I like Aerie even better here. But the racoon was better above, and he has a better agent.Imoen should just turn 20 by the time this adventure finishes. And she’s one of the most powerful mages in this part of Faerun.
I still have so much to learn about video renders. You choose from a long list of models to convert the image to a video. Well, with image renders, if you don’t like what you get, you just re-render and you’ll get a new image, or four, to choose from. For video renders, if you re-use the same description and model, you will get virtually the same result. Maybe some minor variation, but anything bad will likely be exactly the same. So you need to change the description *or* the model for each new render. This one took five tries, oof!
Nice pics, and a good charging video! I still haven’t experimented with the video stuff too much. And both copilot and openAI provide video options now. But since my rendering process involves generating as many as 100 pics for every one I use – with four different rendering accounts – the slow render time and limited credits make video rendering a real chore to work into my process.
Jill and Jaheira almost always seem to look good. In prior runs you sometimes had the issue that Jaheira came out overly skinny for a warrior woman, but I haven’t seen that here. And her face is always recognizable. Its a good Keldorn incarnation in this set – the look suits him well. Christoper looks great, and well matched to Jill. Aerie looks nice and consistent, and a lot like I picture her in my head. And its a fun take on Imoen. The devil is always in keeping that looks when rendering them with other characters and in adventuring scenarios.
Aeria with her raccoon works very well! Especially since it looks like you can actually pose the raccoon. I’ve considered a familiar for Jasper, but the squirrel renders have issues in that so far the squirrel always has exactly the same pose and expression. I need a familiar that can act! He just picked up a dog at camp, but that’s just a camp mascot. You can pick up an owlbear cub later that’s similar. There’s a couple special options in BG3 for Raven and Quasit familiars. Standard BG3 “find familiar” spell can give you cat, rat, crab, frog, raven,. or spider. I’ll have to sort out which of those is easiest to render with a personality. cat, rat, or raven would fit Jasper best of those options. I imagine “cat” and “dog” are the easiest to get showing facial expressions and such given their ubiquity as pets.
I’m actually surprised to realize I haven’t had a run yet with a consistent animal companion as a character. Jasper is definitely going to have to address that.
A lot of this comes easier with portraits, which is basically what this set is. Keldorn in particular can be tricky, so it was nice to have this come out. He was actually the only one who came out right on the first try.
I did like that Imoen, I think her hair is too long? But it seems like a good representation otherwise.
The Aerie renders were awesome, once I sorted out the details. I do like doing critters, and I really enjoyed doing my Lemur for that IWD run. He was always an entertaining character, even if his size was never consistent. So it struck me as funny to have a Racoon, like her deity’s companion, watching as she prayed. And that was the description “a curious racoon stands nearby watching”. Very simple. The racoon was generally better than sorting out Aerie. I think that’s the advantage of something “normal” and simple.
The videos have been a ton of fun, although they do have many of the same sort of frustrations as image renders. In addition to being slower and more expensive. But I think I’ll continue trying to have one or two with every set.
DavesGaming 
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