I got into Poser to please myself. Ran through bryce, Daz Studio and finally bought Vue as well. In order to get seriose work done you WILL either need to buy lots and lots of characters, morphs and clothes. OR you will need to learn a modeler. Don't pirate so Maya is probably out of the question but the free apps mentioned will work if you dedicate boatloads of time into learning them. I'm addicted and have probably spent upwards of $25,000 on hardware, software and training videos and books (Lynda.com is great) so beware it is very very addicting.
Personally I have never used a Smith Micro character in anything I've done since Poser 3. The Daz Mil4 are the best you can get and are currently free. get them now even if you aren't sure about poser. Go to the free stuff here. You will probably need a full day to make it to the end of the free stuff but I will bet my bottom dollar much of what you need will be there