u/Daemon7861

This was my first time spending more than a couple of hours on an art piece, and also first time working with lighting or perspective. Still learning how to use Procreate.

I tried to follow the general advice I saw online for shading and lighting, including for metallic textures. I inverted the highlight colors and used that for shadows in Multiply layers, and used Add layers for lighting and highlights. Yet, things still look a bit flat, particularly in the head, left arm, and trenchcoat. It also feels a bit pasted onto the background, rather than looking in place. Apologies if my language is vague; I don't know if there is correct terminology that I should be using.

I tried to get a sort of scale pattern on the trenchcoat (this is of a DnD character whose coat was made from dragon scales), but it doesn't really come through at all, and moving it above the lighting layers makes it look like a very odd geometric pattern over the top.

The "image" I imagined being reflected on the metal (that is to say, what ever is behind the imaginary camera) is a vague bright red light source coming down from the sky, with the same dark fog hanging low over the ground.

Can anyone give me some pointers on how to make things feel more cohesive and not as out of place?

Hi y'all, I'm playing a Dungeons of Drakkenheim campaign that's using the 2014 rules (but using 2024 Weapon Masteries), starting at level 3 and continuing to 13. Starting with a free feat. The rest of the party includes an artillerist artificer, a swashbuckler rogue, a malfeasant wizard, and a beast cleric/stars druid.

Hearing the themes of the Drakkenheim setting, I immediately wanted to chase a bit of a Bloodborne power fantasy. As I've yet to play a Ranger and it seemed to have some very suitable options for the job, I decided to go with that.

I rolled quite well on my initial stats—15, 15, 15, 14, 12, 12—and figured I might be able to pull off a more MAD build. So the first idea I toyed with involved the Hollow Warden UA for the flavor and lifesteal, which I did get permission to play (though would have to use it with the 2014 Ranger chassis). It seems promising, but I realized the save effect of the aura isn't all that strong, and that it'd be tough to balance my strength and wisdom scores. So then I started looking at the Hunter subclass, and that also seems good for what I'm going for. I considered Monster Slayer, but without the level 15 perk it seems rather lackluster.

With those in mind, I had three general builds in mind, would love some input on what might be most useful:

- Satyr Hollow Warden with Shillelagh: Would go with a quarterstaff and shield, picking up 2014 Shillelagh with Druidic Warrior. Upside is AC would be very high and Hollow Warden features would be at max strength, but damage would suffer. Also a quarterstaff is objectively less fit for the vibes I'm going for. Would likely grab Polearm Master and War Caster. Satyr magic resistance is useful since this build would benefit less from other feats.

- Human Hollow Warden with Halberd: The original idea, and very MAD. DM permitted me to take Great Weapon Fighting instead of one of the normal Ranger Fighting Styles if I so choose, so this would be running a Halberd, PAM, GWM, and Sentinel. Upside is a good mix of damage and durability, downside is lower aura save, durability, and harder to keep concentration.

- Human Hunter with Halberd: This takes more or less the same build as the previous one, but uses the 2014 Hunter. I'd grab Horde Breaker so that with Cleave Mastery I can get effectively an extra two attacks a turn if in a group, using GWM to stack the damage up. The upside here is obviously damage, but the downside would be a much squishier character with lower AC.

Anyone who's played Drakkenheim and has some (spoiler free) advice, would love to hear it! And any general build optimizers that have some advice, would also love some
Input :)

Edit: I should clarify; I am well aware that the strongest Ranger option here would be yet another ranged build with elven accuracy, sharpshooter, two hand crossbows, and archery. However, that's not the experience I'm looking for. Also aware that Fighter or Barbarian would probably be more effective in melee, and considered both of those, but hard to pass up some of the out of combat utility of Ranger in an exploration campaign, especially since DM is allowing me to take the city as a favored terrain.

First time with lighting; feels kind of flat and not cohesive, but I'm not sure what I need to change to fix that

Help me decide between some Ranger options for my Drakkenheim Campaign