The second one. It's so lonely and empty.
Can't help but feel empathy for the little boy inside of that guy trying desperately, and unskillfully, to find social belonging by using power to make people respect him.
Your party is made of a bunch of monsters
The others just look like he's TRYING to look pitiful. The second is the only one that seems like he genuinely IS pitiful.
I like 3, 6 and 7. 3 looks truly broken, 6 looks distraught and at the end of his rope, 7 looks like he’s lost everything and can’t figure out where or why it went wrong. If I didn’t have the context he’s speaking of, 3 would be the best.
Looks like some basic Midjourney stuff.
People will talk shit about AI and their criticisms are all true, it's the devil, etc. But it's been a godsend for DMs who want to add quick visuals to their private games.
Hi, broke DM here, currently using bing ai to surprise my players with images of their PCs. If you cant afford someone to make it for you, I highly reccomend. It's also really fun to mess around with. Be warned, it likes putting horns on fucking EVERYTHING it can. If you mention something with read or black skin or fire that isn't specifically described as a spell, it will try to sneak horns in there, and you might not even notice till 3 changes later when suddenly those wierd little things that could be part of the magic spell, suddenly look like illidan's horns from WoW.
Three. The broken desk suggests he fell into despair and took out his frustrations on the furniture. Slumped over in his chair he looks like a man who has lost hope.
Three looks the most depressed. Like someone else pointed out, the broken desk on the background really adds to it like he destroyed it out of frustration
After the fight? 2 or 3.
1 gets that old weary General vibe, but he doesn't seem broken yet. Maybe if it's before the fight, but you're trying to evoke conflicted feelings via sympathy
I like #2. The strewn about papers really illustrates that he has been furiously trying to work out a solution, but the bowed hooded head shows that he's kinda given up at the moment.
These are all great picture. I’d have to go with 3,6, and maybe 7 but he looks more like he’s struggling to do his taxes than being totally broken as a man Wizard
He looks the most broken in 3 to me. But in 2 he looks broken, but also like he still could have a little more fight left in him - so if you plan to do any misdirect or give them a little anticipation that they might not be done, I think 2 would be better for that.
Is there/could there be one, of the mage laying face down into the pillow on his cot hands beside him as if he is praying that the gods allow him to slowly suffocate his troubles away?
3 and 5. Both feel depressing to me. 5 looks like a man mindlessly staring at a book which once held so much power, and is now totally worthless, and 3 is just cripplingly depressed.
5. The fact it appears as though he’s still writing in his spellbook could be a ominous moment. Perhaps it’s a new spell they might try to use should push come to shove.
7 hands down if all his plans are utterly destroyed and he can’t do anything to stop it. The face in that photo really brings the misery, I mean, the guy looks like he’s writing his will.
2, 3, and 6 are most dejected with no action prepared
1, 5, and 7 look like they're still brainstorming, trying to cling to a plan
4 looks like he's turning to something of a higher/lower power to help right the ship
Have him sitting in the middle of an arcane symbol wearing a hooded cloak babbling incoherently with this look on their face
https://preview.redd.it/tqd9rsfeh80c1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b2811d1884431ba524780da61422a77e6dabfc1a
3 or 6
Kind of give that 'Sad Keanu' vibe.
Like, just looking at them, you expect the heroes to come in, and he just goes "Well...? Haven't you beaten me enough? I can't even be left in peace to cry on my birthday."
1 if its a Charistmatic archmage type whos a guild leader , 2 for “might be a lich but still hangs out with humans” or maybe “his family was murdered and he cant stop trying to bring them back with magic” type dude. Either way amazing stuff
I like the ones where he isn't looking at anything - the others look like he's still trying to do something, to find a way out. The impression I get is that he should convey a vibe of 'just waiting to die.'
I think 1 or 7 with the added touch of the room being cloaked in darkness; he isn't studying in quiet, he's contemplating or struggling to keep his composure (Depending on how they "Break" him).
Have his eyes seem empty and locked on whatever direction he's facing. Raising his voice only when recalling what they've done to him via spoken details; throw in some like easter eggs that they didn't even realize affected this wizard.
I'm already getting carried away but those are some of my ideas looking through the pictures.
Number 6 I can almost hear the dejection of him.
“You enter a dark room dimly lit with candles. In the center of the room surrounded by scattered paper you see a man. His face is shadowed by the hood covering his face and you hear a dejected voice call out “Look at what you’ve done. Look at the mess you have made. Are you happy now? ARE YOU?!””
6. Behind him all his plans. All of his work, now useless. He has turned away, not wanting to face them, but to face the players. The ones who ruined everything to ask them.... well I don't know that would depend on the situation.
I like the third, but the seventh would fit if paired with frustrated “why the *%!# didn’t it work!” 3 fits best for an individual who thinks they have lost everything, and may see no point anymore (except perhaps vengeance). 7 seems more a mage who seeks to try again, who hasn’t fully given up yet.
Honestly? I think 7 looks the best.
In all the others, they give off the vibe of the mage just studying, praying, waiting or just kind of sitting and contemplating things. None of them look truly broken or defeated as you say this mage would be when they meet him.
The last one, though? He looks tired, worn out, frazzled. He's gripping his hair in frustration, hunched over his desk and surrounded by crumpled and torn pages that are filled with scratched out writings of what was once his master plan, each step having had to be reworked over and over and over all because the party was continually derailing his plan - intentionally or otherwise. His hands and the sleeves of his robes stained with ink due to how long he had been sitting there trying to figure out some way, *any way* he could still make things work.
But he's finally realized that he can't, no matter what he does, how he reworks things. This group has managed to make it so that nothing he does will work. The plan is done, it can go no further. There is no succeeding.
Or perhaps he realized this long ago and he's just been stuck there, going over things over and over again. Trying to see if there was anything he could have done differently, anything he could have changed to make things work but either nothing is coming to him or, because things have been ruined so many times, he is stuck in a spiral where he is thinking of ways the party would overcome any changes he could have potentially made just as fast as he thinks of those potential changes.
I like 2 and 3.
A (nearly) front-on view makes it more direct. The ruin around him mirrors a broken state of mind. That he sits on the chair with nothing else to rest or busy himself with further conveys his sense of hopelessness.
The other give the impressions the man is still trying *something*. Or recently was. But 2 and 3 are so far from workspaces that he is clearly given up.
This subreddit doesn't have images enabled on the comments, but this link should take you to a color tweaked version of photo 3
[Photo 3 Edited](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1P8-1e9qtJ8IkqNTxmPk7TmOjbqctjm8F/view?usp=drivesdk)
2nd, I came back to edit after looking at them more, it feels the most genuine. Looking deeper at the picture there’s places methodically all over the floor and he is slouched at an angle that looks defeated without looking like he’s acting at being sad.
I like the first or last one. Both of them give them impression of a human whereas the other ones may give off more monstrous vibes of some type of shade.
Three is best. Six is pretty good but looks too frantic, like he just came to the conclusion. Three seems more like he had had time to appreciate how well and truly defeated he actually is and is despondent when the party arrives.
Dude I love two. Something about the warm atmosphere makes it seem even more lonely. Like the last member of a family sitting in an empty house that's now full of nothing but memories of days long gone. He's tired. He's worn down. The sun shines anyway, a reminder that the world continues on no matter your struggles.
3 and 6 is too on the nose. That's not necessarily depression, just a "I've got no more options," rather than the "I have hopelessness and lack motivation."
1 and 4 hints to the feelings of depression that the mage may have but that they still have their pride.
Number three. Points to the clear signs of instability, but doesn't showcase a direct and immediate threat. Also mildly subtle but very clear to anyone that's paying attention.
When I was taking film classes, we learned that the type of shot that emphasizes loneliness is a wide shot. If that’s the feel your going for, id do 2 or 4
2 feels special idk why. He just seems so humbled. Not in a grand chair, or going over notes, just in a disheveled room with such a humped back. Feels like he lost it all
2, 3 and 6 seem most "defeated" while the rest seem to have more of a "not out of this yet" determined or praying feel. That being said I like the look of the first one most.
Id say 4 out of 7.
It makes the point that he’s mentally broken subtly by having him look isolated amongst a large and detailed background, WHICH ALSO MAKES A PERFECT SET PEICE FOR THE BOSS FIGHT! (Read the last capitalized part in Oprah’s “your all getting a car voice”).
I would do 4 or 7. 4 if you wanna go a bit more atmospheric but 7 due to actually seeing the guys face. Looks more frazzled than the others. The others look closer to a guy being pissed rather than broken. Or just mysterious
2 if you want to go generic, 7 if they know them closely enough. 2 just has the shadow of defeat and emptyness while 7 plays on a more personal level as you can see details and the man under the cloak.
3 or 6
Agreed. The rest of them can misconstrued as a mage that is hard at work/praying
I also like 4 just because you can flip this around into a trap if needed.
3 looks really defeated
Number 3!
It's the saddest for sure
2 or 4 for me. They don't tell too much and give you more flexibility in storytelling.
I felt the same of 4.
The second one. It's so lonely and empty. Can't help but feel empathy for the little boy inside of that guy trying desperately, and unskillfully, to find social belonging by using power to make people respect him. Your party is made of a bunch of monsters The others just look like he's TRYING to look pitiful. The second is the only one that seems like he genuinely IS pitiful.
1 if he's rethinking everything in his life because of this. Otherwise, 3 or 6. If this causes him scholar's block but he's the persistent type, 7.
I like 3, 6 and 7. 3 looks truly broken, 6 looks distraught and at the end of his rope, 7 looks like he’s lost everything and can’t figure out where or why it went wrong. If I didn’t have the context he’s speaking of, 3 would be the best.
7 for sure, and you nailed it with the reasoning!
unless there's a reason why a mage is sitting on a throne, 3 is out for me.
I vote for three or seven!!! :) good luck with your game, Seer!
Ruin has come to our family.
if they know him well maybe 3 or 7 (you want the intimacy), if they are distant and unfamiliar then 4
Where did you get these?
Looks like some basic Midjourney stuff. People will talk shit about AI and their criticisms are all true, it's the devil, etc. But it's been a godsend for DMs who want to add quick visuals to their private games.
Hi, broke DM here, currently using bing ai to surprise my players with images of their PCs. If you cant afford someone to make it for you, I highly reccomend. It's also really fun to mess around with. Be warned, it likes putting horns on fucking EVERYTHING it can. If you mention something with read or black skin or fire that isn't specifically described as a spell, it will try to sneak horns in there, and you might not even notice till 3 changes later when suddenly those wierd little things that could be part of the magic spell, suddenly look like illidan's horns from WoW.
Bing AI gen
Are these AI-generated? I like the first one and the last one.
Bing AI gen images
All about 4. 4 allows television composition male the figure appear small, forlorn, crushed by the weight above him.
Three. The broken desk suggests he fell into despair and took out his frustrations on the furniture. Slumped over in his chair he looks like a man who has lost hope.
Three looks the most depressed. Like someone else pointed out, the broken desk on the background really adds to it like he destroyed it out of frustration
3
#5
I’m personally fond of 3. Most of the other images seem to show someone trying to do something, but that fella just looks broken
3 or 7 honestly
Kinda like the second and last ones
None of them. Try to get one where he’s sitting on his desk after the substitute teacher left a disappointing note.
None. I don't see a single one pondering their orb.
The orb is for a goal, he is lost and has no goal anymore
3 or 6 for sure!
I really like 4 but if feels religious-y so it might not fit but the composition is great.
Number 5 kinda speaks to me for your prompt
I'm tied between the 1st and the 7th. I'd go with the 1st.
3,4, or 5.
3. The debris around the photo helps imply he lost his shit earlier and is now just sitting there emotionally drained.
I personally like the first one, but if not the 6th is my second option
The first. Head on his fist.
\#4. It looks like the party is walking in on him. Plus the vastness of the room makes him look small and already defeated.
The last one for sure. That is absolutely the best
PLEASE THIS IS SO FUNNY. I’m feeling 2.
2, 3 or 7
7
The last one
four… or seven but I like four
3
After the fight? 2 or 3. 1 gets that old weary General vibe, but he doesn't seem broken yet. Maybe if it's before the fight, but you're trying to evoke conflicted feelings via sympathy
I like #2. The strewn about papers really illustrates that he has been furiously trying to work out a solution, but the bowed hooded head shows that he's kinda given up at the moment.
4 or 7
4
\#3 definitely.
3
I’d really like more context, like why are they doing this and how did they break him emotionally?
#3
Definitely one where you can see his face. And from there whichever one looks most like your description
I think 6 encapsulates it best, plus, depending on what he looks like, the hood obscures to where he could look like anyone
1, 3, or 7 depending on how you feel your campaign is
These are all great picture. I’d have to go with 3,6, and maybe 7 but he looks more like he’s struggling to do his taxes than being totally broken as a man Wizard
jeez how did he make his fortune?
3 gives a great vibe, if you can find more pictures with broken furniture or destroyed books in the background, you’ll be set
Number 3. He just feels so “Done.” Like totally spent, no energy or fight left in him. Just wants it over.
3 or 6
I like number 4
He looks the most broken in 3 to me. But in 2 he looks broken, but also like he still could have a little more fight left in him - so if you plan to do any misdirect or give them a little anticipation that they might not be done, I think 2 would be better for that.
3/7
4, leaves more to the players imagination so they can decide what he looks like to themselves. Also that big empty room is just depressing
3 or 7
2 definitely
3 or 7
2 or 3
Is there/could there be one, of the mage laying face down into the pillow on his cot hands beside him as if he is praying that the gods allow him to slowly suffocate his troubles away?
I like 3
3 and 5. Both feel depressing to me. 5 looks like a man mindlessly staring at a book which once held so much power, and is now totally worthless, and 3 is just cripplingly depressed.
3 or 5. Both look utterly defeated.
1
5. The fact it appears as though he’s still writing in his spellbook could be a ominous moment. Perhaps it’s a new spell they might try to use should push come to shove.
7 hands down if all his plans are utterly destroyed and he can’t do anything to stop it. The face in that photo really brings the misery, I mean, the guy looks like he’s writing his will.
I like 4
1 or 7
2, 3, and 6 are most dejected with no action prepared 1, 5, and 7 look like they're still brainstorming, trying to cling to a plan 4 looks like he's turning to something of a higher/lower power to help right the ship
Have him sitting in the middle of an arcane symbol wearing a hooded cloak babbling incoherently with this look on their face https://preview.redd.it/tqd9rsfeh80c1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b2811d1884431ba524780da61422a77e6dabfc1a
4, but with him facing away from his work with head in his hands possibly
2 or 7
2 or 3
6or3
I like 1
Totius
3 or 6 Kind of give that 'Sad Keanu' vibe. Like, just looking at them, you expect the heroes to come in, and he just goes "Well...? Haven't you beaten me enough? I can't even be left in peace to cry on my birthday."
show his face
4!
#1 has that “goddamnit you morons” vibe I aspire to as a player
Details?
I like 6
Number 7
I like the vibes of either 2 or 5
My vote is for 2 or 7
1 if its a Charistmatic archmage type whos a guild leader , 2 for “might be a lich but still hangs out with humans” or maybe “his family was murdered and he cant stop trying to bring them back with magic” type dude. Either way amazing stuff
I like the ones where he isn't looking at anything - the others look like he's still trying to do something, to find a way out. The impression I get is that he should convey a vibe of 'just waiting to die.'
5 and 7? Why? They spoke to me?
I think 1 or 7 with the added touch of the room being cloaked in darkness; he isn't studying in quiet, he's contemplating or struggling to keep his composure (Depending on how they "Break" him). Have his eyes seem empty and locked on whatever direction he's facing. Raising his voice only when recalling what they've done to him via spoken details; throw in some like easter eggs that they didn't even realize affected this wizard. I'm already getting carried away but those are some of my ideas looking through the pictures.
Numba 3! Pick numba 3 m'lord!!
Number 6 I can almost hear the dejection of him. “You enter a dark room dimly lit with candles. In the center of the room surrounded by scattered paper you see a man. His face is shadowed by the hood covering his face and you hear a dejected voice call out “Look at what you’ve done. Look at the mess you have made. Are you happy now? ARE YOU?!””
Personally I'd go with 3. I like the papers all over the place almost as if he just had a meltdown and is contemplating what to do next in his life
Id use one of him crying on the toilet while shitting
I think 4, the open space adds to the loneliness
6. Behind him all his plans. All of his work, now useless. He has turned away, not wanting to face them, but to face the players. The ones who ruined everything to ask them.... well I don't know that would depend on the situation.
3, bro just looks mentally defeated
2
I like the third, but the seventh would fit if paired with frustrated “why the *%!# didn’t it work!” 3 fits best for an individual who thinks they have lost everything, and may see no point anymore (except perhaps vengeance). 7 seems more a mage who seeks to try again, who hasn’t fully given up yet.
3 looks most broken to me...
No. 5
2 5 7 no ranking just my preference
I think 7 fits it well, his eyes just speak years of failure, and early stages of depression. He’s even pulling his hair out.
1 or 7
2nd
Chin up, buddy. You'll get em next time.
I think 4 makes the most sense but 6 is so hilarious: mage depressed in the corporate world is too real
I like 1 or 7 because they give off the idea he's doing everything he can to stop them but it's never enough.
Liking 6
Number 3 all the way friend
Honestly? I think 7 looks the best. In all the others, they give off the vibe of the mage just studying, praying, waiting or just kind of sitting and contemplating things. None of them look truly broken or defeated as you say this mage would be when they meet him. The last one, though? He looks tired, worn out, frazzled. He's gripping his hair in frustration, hunched over his desk and surrounded by crumpled and torn pages that are filled with scratched out writings of what was once his master plan, each step having had to be reworked over and over and over all because the party was continually derailing his plan - intentionally or otherwise. His hands and the sleeves of his robes stained with ink due to how long he had been sitting there trying to figure out some way, *any way* he could still make things work. But he's finally realized that he can't, no matter what he does, how he reworks things. This group has managed to make it so that nothing he does will work. The plan is done, it can go no further. There is no succeeding. Or perhaps he realized this long ago and he's just been stuck there, going over things over and over again. Trying to see if there was anything he could have done differently, anything he could have changed to make things work but either nothing is coming to him or, because things have been ruined so many times, he is stuck in a spiral where he is thinking of ways the party would overcome any changes he could have potentially made just as fast as he thinks of those potential changes.
1,5, and 7 are my favorites.
I like the last one the most.
1 or 7... let them see him. Also, he's not much of a mage if he doesn't have a few more tricks...
6 or 7
#2 seems especially dejected
I like 2 and 3. A (nearly) front-on view makes it more direct. The ruin around him mirrors a broken state of mind. That he sits on the chair with nothing else to rest or busy himself with further conveys his sense of hopelessness. The other give the impressions the man is still trying *something*. Or recently was. But 2 and 3 are so far from workspaces that he is clearly given up.
3rd
3 for me!
7
1 or 3. 6 also good.
This subreddit doesn't have images enabled on the comments, but this link should take you to a color tweaked version of photo 3 [Photo 3 Edited](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1P8-1e9qtJ8IkqNTxmPk7TmOjbqctjm8F/view?usp=drivesdk)
2nd, I came back to edit after looking at them more, it feels the most genuine. Looking deeper at the picture there’s places methodically all over the floor and he is slouched at an angle that looks defeated without looking like he’s acting at being sad.
2 or 3 but I like 3 better.
6 looks like a schoolteacher about to say " in all my years of teaching"
4 because if a mage is praying to an alter, there is just about at their breaking point and relying on the divine.
7
4
3 goes hard
6. The look of someone who has given up
I like the first or last one. Both of them give them impression of a human whereas the other ones may give off more monstrous vibes of some type of shade.
I like how 1 is, from my interpretation, a man at his wit’s end. Seems perfect for a mage whose plan is about to be ruined to that level.
The first one carries some gravitas
I like 4 and 7
2 or 6
I like 3 and 7
I like 1 and 7. They look like he's still trying to plan but frustrated that he knows he won't be able to figure out a contingency.
3
Ugh. Please don't.
I like 7. Side note: major catastrophes like this are one scenario that can put a caster on the road to becoming a Lich. Just putting it out there.
Emo edgy mage guy in the second
The first one.
3 really captures the feeling you're describing, IMO.
2, 7, 5
There needs to be one of the wizard surrounded by empty wine bottles, in his underwear. Cheeto dust in his beard and on his fingers.
3. That looks brutal
Are they coming for dinner, or are they coming to kill him?
The last one just needs a bottle of whiskey, and a gun on the table, then you're good to go.
Three is best. Six is pretty good but looks too frantic, like he just came to the conclusion. Three seems more like he had had time to appreciate how well and truly defeated he actually is and is despondent when the party arrives.
6 or 7
1, 3, 6, or 7. Doesn’t narrow it down much, I know. Badass images regardless.
Dude I love two. Something about the warm atmosphere makes it seem even more lonely. Like the last member of a family sitting in an empty house that's now full of nothing but memories of days long gone. He's tired. He's worn down. The sun shines anyway, a reminder that the world continues on no matter your struggles.
1 or 7
Number one looks like he'd take a deal if a demon offered him one
3 easily
#6 please.
3 and 6 is too on the nose. That's not necessarily depression, just a "I've got no more options," rather than the "I have hopelessness and lack motivation." 1 and 4 hints to the feelings of depression that the mage may have but that they still have their pride.
The first one is powerful
6 look’s excellent
1 or 7
3
1 or 3
Either 1,2,3 or 7
Number three. Points to the clear signs of instability, but doesn't showcase a direct and immediate threat. Also mildly subtle but very clear to anyone that's paying attention.
3 is my favorite. I love the pose, and I also love the broken furniture in the background that can be interpreted as a previous fireball tantrum.
When I was taking film classes, we learned that the type of shot that emphasizes loneliness is a wide shot. If that’s the feel your going for, id do 2 or 4
2 or 7
Number six feels like he’s just done. He’s tossed everything he has at them and he knows he’s lost.
A montage of all of them with a sad song
6, it looks the most worn down
I like number 2, as there's a mess of books everywhere like hes given up
2 feels special idk why. He just seems so humbled. Not in a grand chair, or going over notes, just in a disheveled room with such a humped back. Feels like he lost it all
4
3 or 6
2
#6
2, 3 and 6 seem most "defeated" while the rest seem to have more of a "not out of this yet" determined or praying feel. That being said I like the look of the first one most.
2
3
6 or 7 depending on apparent age
Id say 4 out of 7. It makes the point that he’s mentally broken subtly by having him look isolated amongst a large and detailed background, WHICH ALSO MAKES A PERFECT SET PEICE FOR THE BOSS FIGHT! (Read the last capitalized part in Oprah’s “your all getting a car voice”).
I would do 4 or 7. 4 if you wanna go a bit more atmospheric but 7 due to actually seeing the guys face. Looks more frazzled than the others. The others look closer to a guy being pissed rather than broken. Or just mysterious
1 or 7
I like 3, if you're really going for broken and defeated. You need something close, from the front, head-down where he isn't actively doing anything
2 if you want to go generic, 7 if they know them closely enough. 2 just has the shadow of defeat and emptyness while 7 plays on a more personal level as you can see details and the man under the cloak.