Just some notes and observations about how the characters and their renderings evolved over the course of the Solasta campaign.

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Roland “Hero” de Salle

“jeff easley fantasy painting;french paladin man,age 50,neat thin beard,friendly,haggard,brown hair,blue eyes,strong,paladin armor,blue cape;in medieval city“

Roland ended up just about exactly as I imagined him. In 2E terms he’s basically a straight kit-less Paladin. He was reasonable as a damage dealer, good at negotiation, good at tying up the really dangerous threats without going down, and good at protecting his companions – particularly Kat before she came into her defence late.

Rendering wise Roland was usually the easiest for the AI to get right. I spent more time hunting for just the right facial expressions with him than large scale “does this look like him at all” questions. Biggest issue is that it kept wanting to turn his barely-more-than-a-goatee into a full-on dwarf beard. So what started as “small goatee” eventually became “thin beard” as I split the difference. His armor also improved over the series from “rusty chain” to “plain armor” to “paladin plate”. And by the end he added the blue cape. Preferred art style for Roland was “Jeff Easley”

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Katarina “Kat” Kitovski

“jeff easley fantasy painting;italian rogue woman,age 30,short black french bob hair,smirking,sassy,brown eyes,black leather armor,black leather pants,pointing dagger;in medieval roman city“

Kat started out very much as a skill monkey glass cannon – light on the cannon. Essentially like a 2E pure thief. She was always the primary scout, and once she picked up a strength belt (longer jumping) and boots of spider-climbing she could get into or out of almost anything.

In 2E terms she would be very much akin to a Swashbuckler kit Thief. As she progressed I improved her defense with feats focused on light weapons and duel wielding. And then around L8 the Swashbuckler defensive features kicked in and she became a real threat – both offensively and defensively. Two features in particular worked very well together. A swashbuckler can spend their reaction to counter-attack one melee attack per turn that misses them. Since this is not part of their regular attacks, this extra attack gets sneak attack dice that she would normally only get once per round. The other was the L8 “add 1d6 to your AC each round if you attack in melee”. This added up with her defensive feats, Dex, and magic armor to be pushing past AC 30 by endgame if she was fully engaged in melee – more than Roland in magic plate with a shield. So it was very rare for her to NOT get that extra sneak attack in. She was also an *excellent* sniper if she got to set up in a good position and use “steady aim” every round rather than moving.

Rendering wise Kat was pretty easy throughout. The biggest issue was the AI’s strong desire to make her outfit skimpier. Much of the time I had to explicitly specify pants. And it often desperately wanted to give her high heels instead of practical footwear. Other than that she worked pretty well in almost any art style. Larry Elmore often worked well for her solo, but she also often used Jeff Easley as that did a good job rendering her together with Roland.

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Fernando “Falcon” Fernandez

“lankhmar fantasy painting;spanish duelist man,age 32,small spanish goatee,dark-skinned,wiry build,scars,worn leather armor,facial tattoo of falcon,unkempt long black hair,fine spanish rapier,lunging with rapier pointed at viewer;in medieval roman city“

Falcon is straight fighter all the way. In 2E terms something like a Fighter with the Swashbukler kit. Falcon started out as a bit of a glass cannon, with emphasis on the cannon, and just improved from there. By endgame he still went down more often than Roland, but man could he pump out the damage. Four attacks per round with his rapier, *seven* on the first round if Action Surge was available. Which meant once he got a good rapier he could tear up anything short of a boss in at most two rounds. And the battlemaster array of special reactions on enemies missing, enemies moving near him, enemies hitting him, etc made him quite capable of holding crowds at bay.

Render wise Falcon was the hardest to get a consistent look. He had the longest “short” description of any character beyond Tess, but I could not nail it down with any consistency. Best art styles for him were either Jeff Easley – or “Lankhmar style” to give him a bit of Grey Mouser vibe. Over time I eased up on the “ratty”, “tattered” and “drunk” descriptions as he sobered up and came more into his own.

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Tessandra “Tess” Tagliatova

“clyde caldwell fantasy painting;irish half-elf woman,long undercut black hair,arcane face tattoos,wan smile,leather armor,saffron cape;in a medieval roman city“

I originally made Tess a Wizard because I thought we would need the magical offense. Particularly since she was the only primary caster in the party. But the majority of the time her primary magical role ended up consisting of control, buffing, and especially counter-magic. Which means if I were starting from the beginning again I would probably make her a Bard. A 5E Bard – particularly a Lore Bard – would be perfectly capable of everything I asked of her magically, while being better at skills and such. But she works as is. A high level Wizard can still do anything, after all.

Rendering-wise Tess was a handful – particularly at first. Her hairstyle and tattoos were incredibly inconsistent and I often had to violently contort descriptions of any image to make sure her hair was described before anything else. I went through periods of her being “Cockney” – which often decked her out as a London punk rocker. “Viking” – which is what she was in the Cradle of Fire. “Celtic”, and then finally “Irish”. Irish gave her Celtic tattoos and helped support the hairstyle without making her Goth or Punk. And then I finally happened upon Clyde Caldwell. For some reason Clyde gets her hair right more often than not with just “long undercut black hair” as opposed to the long,twisted descriptions I required with other styles. Unfortunately I didn’t discover this until the last installment, but I will definitely continue to use it for the Solasta expansion.

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The Hero and the Kat

Roland and Kat together are normally Jeff Easley, but since they are both inherently strong archetypes they can work well together in a number of artist styles. Including one I’ve never tried before – “Discworld painting” – the last one in the set. I even tried them in “M.C. Escher” style for a while when trying to get renders of some of the maddeningly topsy turvy environments in the endgame Manacalon Capital – and while I never got quite what I wanted out of the terrain they both came through quite recognizable even in that.

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