Attached Link: Fantasy Novel

I'm very much a newbie, and I'm probably jumping way too far ahead of myself, but I'd nevertheless like to experiment with the possibilities of designing my own 3D models and/or textures for use in Poser. My first question is about the textures. What programs out there support the painting of textures directly onto the 3D object? Are they worth the money? Or can one achieve just as good or better results without them without very much more trouble? I am aware that DeepPaint3D and ZBrush both have this capability; but are there others that are (perhaps) less well known? Are they as good? Are any of them any cheaper? In regard to 3D modeling (as opposed to texturing), being a 3D beginner, I'd like to use something that's not so challenging that I get too easily discouraged; but it would also be nice if it was capable of something worthwhile when pushed and tweaked a little bit. All suggestions welcome, freeware, open source, shareware, cheap, expensive, graphic suites, etc., etc. Thanks in advance for your input. / R