New into 3D character design, what do I need to get what I want to achieve?

Hello, I'm already a Bryce user, and now looking at getting into Daz Studio 4.6 Pro.
However, the amount of different products and plugins etc. is totally overwhelming and confusing for me, so I hope you can help a bit.

I'm a private user and don't intend any longer career or even a dedicated hobby, I just need Daz Studio as a tool for another hobby of mine.

Let me explain:

I am very bad at drawing, so I am looking into this as great alternative. For my other hobby, I need "paintings" from my fantasy world, i.e. I need renderings that look like paintings.
I am planning a set of ca. 10 different scenes for these "paintings", but might as well need to animate the one or the other figure. That's why I am looking into Poser or Daz, and decided for Daz because of the free offer of Daz Studio 4.6 Pro.

I need stuff like Dragons, and some humans (kings, "realistic" looking fantasy figures - no toon or anime stuff!) that can be morphed into mixtures of humans and animals.. like half man / half fish and with wings and a unicorn horn, etc.
I also need some clothes, hairstyles, props etc.

I'd use Bryce for the environments, but don't know if it can do a stormy sea with high waves... this is needed for one of the scenes.

My main focus will be stills, that will be rendered and then edited so that they look like paintings - unless there is already a plugin for that kind of effect... oil colour, craquelure etc.
but I'd also want to be able to do some basic animations (talking, moving arms, gestures, etc.).

I won't do any complex 90 minutes movies, I don't even think any of my animations would be longer than half a minute.

The problem is: I don't have the slightest idea what to focus on in my search for products, as I don't really want to spend more than 200 Euros in total. Is this even realistic? And what would you suggest for the start?