Eye on the 5th: Rinaldo Cardano - Coastwalker of the League of Naturalists

Rinaldo Cardano
(art by Andrew Drilon, c. 2014)

My character for Echoes: Piacenza is now a 3rd Level Druid!

Of course, the setting started out magic- and god-less, so the sudden infusion of arcane and divine magic into the world made for some interesting opportunities to tweak the classes a bit.

One year ago, Rinaldo was an up-and-coming member of the Science District of Piacenza who figured prominently in the uncovering of the Conspiracy of Shadows. Unfortunately, the understanding of those who stood against the Fellowship of the Shadow was flawed, and the cataclysmic Violazione resulted in the deaths of many, and the change of many in the lands of Piacenza -- and perhaps the rest of the world.

For his part, Rinaldo has been helping contribute to the community of Science District and Farwater District citizens who've been trying to understand the changes to the natural laws, and struggling to find ways to return to a more balanced equilibrium in the natural order. The League of Naturalists (as it calls itself) is a conglomeration of smaller Fellowships, and is therefore technically even more illegal than Fellowships -- they've had to rely on some older tongues of Piacenza as the basis of their fellowspeak cant.

Many members of the League of Naturalists, like Rinaldo, wield new 'magical' abilities and are becoming increasingly skilled in wielding them. However, they note that their philosophical opposition to the Arcane Fellowships' views on the use of magic will likely spark conflict in the future.

IDIC Files: The Characters I've Been (part 01)

There is a practice of looking at the PCs of a given player -- perhaps in one RPG, perhaps across all RPGs played -- and reading into the choices of play as an insight into the player.

On one level, this is similar to watching basketball or chess players and coming to conclusions about their play style, strengths and weaknesses. On another level, it's akin to reading one's creative work and coming to conclusions about the player's conscious and subconscious issues, philosophies, and goals.

Keill Blackthorn

When my age was in the single digits, I remember rolling up a D&D character, and named it Keill Blackthorn. Funky spelling of first name? Check! Stereotypical fantasy last name? Check!

Never played him, as I didn't have a regular crew to play with.

In my teens, at a Recreational Center in the U.S. where I had to build a high-level character (several levels lower than the average in that group, of course) Keill was reborn as a half-elven fighter / thief.

My conscious goals were to keep things simple, keeping magic out of my concerns, and just focusing on doing combat stuff. Subconscious goals may have been:

• play a character who doesn't have to lead, to be in front the whole time (as fighters were wont to do);
• provide more skills to the group beyond fighting -- scouting, theivery, and the ever-popular backstab from the shadows;
• emulate a more finesse- or swashbucklerish-fighter with multi-classing;
• be mysterious and not have to talk much, because I was shy and uncertain of myself.

I eventually caught up in gaming skill, but I must admit that I lacked gaming experience as a gaming newbie, and in one spectacularly bad game -- I died three times in a 1-hour timespace, all my fault because I didn't quite understand that the magical symbols I was trying to read were actually a ward that caused instant death when looking at them. They were very generous in resurrecting me -- and one player, she took me aside and explained out of character what I was doing, and that I shouldn't do it anymore, and cited the reasons why.

The campaign was great fun, and though I eventually drifted apart from that group, Keill Blackthorn was my first real ongoing PC in a game.

It was also an eye-opener for me in terms of the separation of playing a class from playing a role, because of a trap that shifted the minds of the various players into different bodies. I learned that I could actually play a character's personality separate from the stereotype of the class (forgive me, I was slow and didn't quite understand the role-playing aspect of the game yet). It freed me to play a truer character in future games as well.

LOTFP: Rolling Up Two Fighters - Choosing a Class

They may be bigger than us, but they only have wooden clubs
and furry loincloths! We can take 'em!

Fighter 01.

STR - 14 (+1)
INT - 12
WIS - 10
DEX - 10
CON - 13 (+1)
CHA - 12

Hit Points
Checking p.06, as a 1st level fighter, she gets 1d8 hp! I rolled a 4. With the CON bonus, that's a 5. Fortunately, there is a minimum number of hit points for a 1st level fighter as per p.20, so Fighter 01 starts of with 8 hp.

Attack Bonus
Also on p.20, it says that I get an attack bonus of +2 at 1st level. That's why she's a fighter, man.

Saving Throws
These are the values that I have to equal or beat on a d20 roll:

• Paralyze [14]
• Poison [12]
• Breath Weapon [15]
• Magical Device [13]
• Magic [16]

It seems that the fighter is best at resisting or overcoming the effects of Poison, followed by resisting Magical Devices, then overcoming paralysis and petrification, then area effect breath weapon things, then magic!

Fighter 02

STR - 11
INT - 9
WIS - 11
DEX - 13 (+1)
CON -11
CHA - 8 (-1)

Hit Points

For her, I roll 1d8 and get a 3. Fighter 02 starts of with 8 hp as well.


Attack Bonus
Attack bonus of +2 at 1st level; check.


Saving Throws

Equal or beat on a d20 roll:

• Paralyze [14]
  
• Poison [12]
  
• Breath Weapon [15]
  
• Magical Device [13]
  
• Magic [16]
  

Concise explanation of what each of these mean on p.21, which helps to further the 'rulings not rules' aspect of running this game.

I've peeked ahead, and know that fighters get some other goodies for their class as well -- like at least two combat options not open to most other classes -- so I'm getting a good feel for this character class.

LOTFP: Rolling Up Two Fighters - Ability Scores

Never got around to building her as a fighter.
So, she'll be my inspiration for a randomly
generated fighter for now.

Here are the Ability Scores for the fighters that I rolled up, allowing the free swapping of the scores, as per the LOTFP rules:

Fighter 01

STR - 14 (+1)
INT - 12
WIS - 10
DEX - 10
CON - 13 (+1)
CHA - 12

So I went with the STR and CON combo, for a fighter who's stronger and tougher (slightly) than the average person. Luckily, all other stats are 'average' in terms of bonus/penalty ratings. In my mind, though, this one is a little bit more quick-witted and charming, due to the 12s in INT and CHA.

Fighter 02

STR - 11

INT - 9
WIS - 11
DEX - 13 (+1)
CON -11
CHA - 8 (-1)

This one, however, only has one bonus, which goes to DEX to aid in initiative and improvement of AC. I kept the STR, WIS, and CON at the upper ranges of 'average', and slapped this fighter into the lower range of 'average' for INT. This one is, however, not that developed in social skills and has a penalty in CHA. I'm hoping that the DEX choice helps this one live longer -- and then the natural bonuses to 'To Hit' will compensate as this one levels up.

We shall see. Next up, the full character sheet, sans equipment.

LOTFP: Professions and Lamentations

I'm going to start creating characters for Lamentations of the Flame Princess. I may begin a PBEM campaign for it, set in one of the cities of the Kingdom of the Wheel.

What will I do with them? Well, they're technically going to be NPCs that could be hired by the PCs -- perhaps at the local Adventurer's Guild? Or maybe they're the heads of the expeditions that will be coming up. Or they're there to bolster the two to three people in my current PBEM when they tackle the Tower of the Stargazer. Or maybe they're there to act as surviving characters so little hooks concerning the background won't be lost -- haha, I've done this kind of thing before for the Call of Cthulhu Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign!

Interestingly enough, the adventure of the Tower of the Stargazer will contain more elements about the Kingdom of the Wheel history, the KeyLords, the Adamantine Court, and the Council of Saeculum -- if they survive.

So... I'll create two characters per class, give 'em short backstories, and see where that goes.

Enigmundia: "Priests of the Devil" part 02

Art by Ian Balba.

4. Mankulam: fire and witchcraft

"There are conflicting reports concerning the mangkulam or mancolam. In some, this fell priest is a purveyor of sympathetic magiks, often using fallen hair or cut nails from a victim affixed to a crude effigy in order to torture them with illness or madness or outright pain.

In other accounts, this priest performs a monthly ritual of bursting into flame beneath the stilt-houses that are common to natives of this land. It is said that such an event marks the resident of the house for a painful death, and that extinguishing the flame early will cause immediate death to the target.

Still others mark the mangkulam as a mortal agent of Sitan -- though why such a creature of such prestigious position would be associated with wallowing in the filth that is sometimes associated with the undersides of these houses is beyond me.

Like Sitan's other agents, the mangkulam presents himself or herself as a traveling priest-doctor."

5. Mambarang: cursed insects

"Often conflated with the mankulam, the mambarang is cited as another priest of the damned who utilizes beetles and other insects to effect and inflict curses of illness and death. More than one cursed native delivered by the agency of the Pio Famila has experienced tiny ants or roaches pouring forth from their mouths or nostrils like rats deserting a burning ship."

6. Hukloban: enchantress

"The last of the four agents of Sitan is called hukloban or hocluban depending on the dialect one is answered in. The hukloban is a powerful witch capable of shedding her guises like a snake sheds its skin. Death is her specialty, as she can strike people down with a raised hand or simple salute; but she can cure or raise those she's slain with another simple gesture.

Or can she? Some of the more learned elders intimate that those afflicted can only be cured in the manner that they were cursed. Those enchanted by imbibed poisons or potions or smoke can only be cured by similar charms."

CharGen: Brother Behemoth -- Horned Prince of Animals

Here's the last post on the creation of my ICONS character. I think I'll try a few more offline before I think about running an online play-by-post game of this. It's an interesting system. Here we go:

BROTHER BEHEMOTH

ABILITIES

Prowess - Ideal Maximum Human (6)
Coordination - Above Average Human (4)
Strength - Superhuman (8)
Intellect - Exceptional Human (5)
Awareness - Above Average Human (4)
Willpower - Ideal Maximum Human (6)

POWERS

Control - Telekinesis (2)
Mental - Animal Control (6)
Defensive - Invulnerability (6)
Offensive - Aura (1)

This is as far as I got in the prior posts; I had to come up with a character concept and background to fit what I rolled up, and here's a more refined, slightly modified version of my character background:

Adam Silangan had an obsession with occult matters. Unlike the other intensely driven members of the mytical community, he didn't seek riches or power or immortality -- he merely wanted to understand the true nature of the world. Thus, he became right-hand man to a powerful sorceror seeking the horn of the mythical Behemoth, the legendary beast mentioned in the Book of Enoch, rumored to be slumbering in the lands near Eden.

It was he who found the entrance to Behemoth's lair, it was he who discovered the horn for his master, but was accidentally cut by its razorsharp tip. Annointed by blood, the horn transformed Adam Silangan into one of the Brothers Behemoth, blessed by a fraction of the monstrous creature's power and charged with protecting the lair's secrets until the Seals have been broken.

As Champion of Behemoth, Adam Silangan is blessed with incredible power (Strength) and toughness (Invulnerability). His skin bristles with thorny spines (Aura), and he is granted dominion over animals (Animal Control). He is also granted dominion over two ghostly monkeys, who invisibly perform his will (Telekinesis).

And now, to finish off the the character creation with the last remaining steps:

SPECIALTIES


I rolled up three specialties, and I finally chose these:

• Occult --> his passion for the occult grants him substantial familarity with its subject matter
• Investigation --> his occult knowledge came from research, reading, and interrogating the knowledgable
• Stealth --> he became quite skilled at sneaking about in his line of work

STAMINA [14] --> based on the sum of his Strength and Willpower, Brother Behmoth's pretty tough.

DETERMINATION [1] --> but with his super-strength and multiple powers, his starting Determination is at the minimum. He'll need to continuously tap his Qualities and Challenges in-game to be able to spend more.

So that qualities shall we give him?

QUALITIES

• Champion of Behemoth --> allows him to tap into his rights and responsibilities as a chose of this mythical, apocalyptic creature
• Connections: the Mystical Underworld --> he's considered a denizen, if not a player, in the Mystical society of Earth
• Identity: Finder of Lost Knowledge --> before that, he was a well-known go-to guy for the masterminds and mystics after key items that would enhance their mystical knowledge, status, or power.
• Motivation: To safeguard the Seals of Creation --> as Champion of Behemoth, he was privvy to a vision of the terrible end that will befall the world if the Seals are broken; his mercenary heart was forever changed by that vision and he struggles with all his might to stop it from ever happening.

What difficulties can he expect?

CHALLENGES

• Enemy: Beloved of Leviathan --> he has a rival, his other number, a female champion of Leviathan, mystical beast of the sea. Occasionally, she is sent to bedevil his quests, and to thwart his intrusions into the many occult secrets hidden on islands or beneath the surface of the seas.
• Enemy: The Inheritors of Eden --> the sponsors of the expedition that granted him power are quite keen to regain the horn from him, but have learned the hard way that directly opposing the Champion of Behemoth is difficult; they plot and scheme to trap him, weaken him, and kill him for its power.
• Personal: The Call of the Wild --> An intellectually-inclined man, he struggles to rein in the powerful animal instincts that suddenly tug at his being.
• Personal: The Lure of Forbidden Knowledge --> Still inquisitive at heart, he is sometimes tempted to embark on personal expeditions into great occult dangers just to learn more.

That's it! Interesting character creation process; I'd forgotten how much fun rolling up a supers character was.

My inspirations for this character are Swamp Thing / Man-Thing, these monstrous creatures who are forever running into supernatural creatures that they have fight; Hellboy, the World's Greatest Paranormal Investigator (because he tends to survive every encounter, despite not being especially bright -- it's a matter of the sheer weight of experience); and the infamous Demon Entrigan / Jason Blood tandem.

NPC Hero: Elemental Champion of Water -- Part 2

Okay, so continuing from the post almost a month ago, I began listing the most appropriate HERO power mechanics to match the abilities I came up with. At the same time, I started to adjust the character concept -- partially due to natural concept refinement, partially due to the need to fit a complete character into the overall point totals.

I start with the "Torrent Raider" abilities, which are water elemental related powers skewed towards a rogue-ish portfolio:

TORRENT RAIDER Abilities

"Body of Water" - an ability to transform her body into a liquid, making her impervious to most damage

• Desolid - the classic intangibility power, and also allows the 'walk through walls' type of ability though it'll probably be blocked by airtight or watertight barriers
• 75% rPD & 75% rED - when attacked, some damage bleeds through, but the remainder passes harmlessly through her after she flickers into her waterform

"Lady of the Lake" - an ability to become invisible by receding into a nearby body of water, and even to skip to other bodies of water and emerge there.

• Invisibility - slides into the water and disappears, except for ripples
• Teleport - jumps to another body of water, and remains hidden till she emerges.

"Ripple sense" - allows the ability to sense water in the immediate area, and the ability to sense in a 360 degree arc movement in water (Sense + Analyze)

"Scry Water" - allows her to sense things near bodies of water (Clairsentience)

"Fathom form" -  allows her to deal with breathing underwater, the pressure, and the temperature extremes in the deeps of the water (Life Support)

NPC Hero: Elemental Champion of Water -- Part 1

Haven't built a new Champions character in a while, so I'm going to start off with the character concept. I have a name -- Alena -- but she's going to have a superheroic alter-ego: the Torrent Rider.

Please be warned that none of what follows has anything to do with the original TV show. I'm just using some elements from the show and twisting them or infusing them with other weirdness.

Overall Concept

My view on her is as the black sheep of the sisterhood blessed with the Elemental Jewels. All sisters are charged with mastery of their assigned Jewels before they may ascend once more to the Enchanted Realm. In order to master the Jewels, they must learn and master facets of the Jewels (some large, some small) and gain the abilities hidden within each.

Her original facet of the Jewel of Water was that of the Torrent Raider -- mostly abilities associated with thieving and raiding.

The current facet she's working on is that of the Torrent Rider -- abilities associated with mobility, kinship and control over water creatures, navigation, sensory gifts, and a legendary mount: the First Sea Serpent known as Fars.

Her mother also gifted her with an weapon: a hafted weapon known as the Hydra's Tooth. Among many things, it allows her to summon the Second Sea Serpent (known as Larwi) to do her bidding.

Offensive Capabilities

Aside from some rudimentary fighting skills as befits a spunky and rebellious young woman, her primary attack powers stem from three sources:

• the First Sea Serpent -- special attack powers against preternatural creatures and spirits;
• the Hydra's Tooth -- a powerful weapon that deals physical damage to foes;
• and the Second Sea Serpent -- a huge serpent that, when summoned, can perform feats of great strength and lay waste to enemies over a great area.

Defensive Capabilities

The First Sea Serpent grants her great agility in battle, due to its sinuous grace and terrible speed, but when necessary, it encloses her in an impervious sphere reminiscent of a perfectly shaped pearl.

The Hydra's Tooth grants her rapid healing from any physical damage.

The facet of the Torrent Raider also grants her the ability to temporarily become water, usually in the form of mist or sea foam, before reincorporating into her humanoid form.

Movement Capabilities

She can swim really fast, as per both facets of the Jewel. But the First Sea Serpent grants her flight and even faster swimming.

Special abilities

Needs to be able to breathe under water, can endure extremes of temperature and crushing pressures of the deep. Can see in near darkness, and can sense the movement of things in water.

She can also communicate with family and friends, and do some scrying using pools of still water.

The Torrent Raider aspect should grant her stealth and infiltration abilities, as well as the ability to appropriate things that don't belong to her.

Wrapping Up

Okay, so that's pretty clear in terms of concept. It's a bit messy, but I wanted to do a more mythologically-based water superheroine. I don't know if I can pay for everything, but I do like the summoning and control of the Sea Serpents. Eventually, she should be able to summon all Seven Sea Serpents once she's mastered the Hydra's Tooth, and the facets of the Jewel should grant her even more watery abilities.

Next up for this character: Point Building!

A Return to Champions

Well, we're using a newer edition. It's
actually 5th edition + house rules.

Because my Old Gaming Group (OGG) has been playing via e-mail, I finally rebuilt my old Champions character -- a martial artist with a chainmail costume, plus a shield and a grappling hook chain weapon (a kawanaga).

He's called the Kawanga Kid (he couldn't quite figure out the name of the weapon), but in this advanced timeline he can't be a 'kid' anymore. Furthermore, I was pushed by my current gaming tastes to add some texture to the character, mix in some wrinkles into the origins, and flesh out what he's been doing for the past two decades since I played him.

I began thinking about all the elements of his character, and then started writing down some names for aspects of his abilities and identity. Here are some of them:

• Death Knight
• Kawanga Kid
• Disciple of the Storm Fist
• Kawal ng Kadena (Soldier of the Chain)
• Jack of Shields
• Chosen of the Adamantine Aegis

And I realized that I had a whole background taking shape before my eyes.

I reorganized my character sheet, rebuilt my character, and am now thinking about how I'm going to rewrite his origin to incorporate all these expanded elements.

It's interesting and embarrassing to see how simplistic, transparent, and derivative my old character was. It's interesting to see how I choose to reshape it now.

Character Names That Stick With You

Quite a number of friends have come up with memorable PC names (though the characters themselves may not be as memorable). The fact that I still remember them means that they've got something special that found hooks in psyche for some reason.

Here are just a few:

• Chastity Ironthighs - D&D, Arduin
• Johnny Zen - Rifts
• PAD (Power Armored Dude) - Champions
• BDM (Bladed Death Machine) - Champions
• Gambucks Rhotiart - Star Wars
• Braumeister - Champions
• Johnny Surprise - Traveller
• The Giggling Phantom - Champions
• Xerran Hazat - Fading Suns
• Hellguard Trellane - Call of Cthulhu  

What character's names have stayed with you for some unfathomable reason?

Reading Room: The Stars Without Number skin -- Part 06

This can't be good for my fingernails. I haven't taken off this
suit in weeks! At least I can relieve myself whenever I feel like it.

And since Philip Tang is a warrior in Stars Without Number, we also get a slew of skills associated with that class. As per rules, any skill granted by background or class is at rank 0, and upped by 1 when granted again by another aspect of character creation.

And then we get to select a Training Package as well, to reflect the warrior specialization. I'm looking at either Commando or Space Marine, but decide to go with Space Marine for the ship-based campaign I envision the character to be a part of.

Here's the final (revised) worklist of skills, since I was informed that the class skills only count when you're building your own Training Package:

• [Background] Combat/Energy Weapons - 0
• [Background] Culture/Spacer - 0
• [Background] Security - 0
• [Background] Tactics - 0
• [Class] Athletics - 0
• [Class] Combat/Any -- (okay, I guess Unarmed makes sense here) Unarmed - 0
• [Class] Exosuit  - 0
• [Class] Leadership - 0
• [Class] Perception - 0 
• [Class] Profession/Any -- (maybe a background in shipping and customs) - Customs Agent - 0
• [Class] Stealth - 0
• [Class] Survival - 0
• [Class] Tactics - 0+1
• [Training Package - Space Marine] Combat/Energy Weapon - 0+1
• [Training Package - Space Marine] Combat/Primitive - 0
• [Training Package - Space Marine] Culture/Spacer - 0+1
• [Training Package - Space Marine] Exosuit - 0
• [Training Package - Space Marine] Tactics - 0+1
• [Training Package - Space Marine] Tech/Astronautics - 0

Revised Final List of Skills

• Security - 0
• Combat/Energy Weapon - 1
• Combat/Primitive - 0
• Culture/Spacer - 1
• Exosuit - 0
• Tactics - 1
• Tech/Astronautics - 0

Reading Room: The Stars Without Number skin -- Part 05

The next step is to select a Background package (which grants skills) for my SWN character, Philip Tang.

The obvious choice would be a soldier, but I'm looking at a different background -- a man good at fighting and war, but from a background of serving and protecting. The security crew package stands out here, and that grants the following:

• Combat/Any (gotta choose one -- Energy Weapons)
• Culture/Spacer
• Security
• Tactics 

And I'm tempted to take him in the direction of Star Trek's Kirk, a rare man who managed to emerge from the ranks of security into a position of command, but I'm not sure he's at that same level of ambition and combat prowess yet.

Reading Room: the Stars Without Number skim -- part 04

Factions

Hello! I went to skip ahead and look at factions and skimmed through the 15 pages that cover it. Funny thing is, I did this to avoid the character creation exercise that I normally need to perform to understand a game -- but factions is essentially a mini-game to help simulate how various organizations and communities grow and achieve (or fail to achieve) their goals. Faction "character" creation, conflict resolution, goals, growth, and so on.

So we'll be getting back to that later. Lots of meat in that section as well, let's see how it plays in the future with three factions in conflict with one another.

Okay, time to go back to Character Creation!

Character Creation

The first step is rolling up character attributes. Rules do give the GM leeway for alternative rolling options, but we can use the default method for the first character build -- 3d6 for each attribute in order. Moving points between scores is allowed on a 1-to-1 basis, BUT this method has some limitations:
(1) no lowering a high score below 13;
(2) no raising a low score above 8.

So, let's see what we get:

Strength      14
Intelligence  11
Wisdom        10
Dexterity     11
Constitution  13
Charisma      10

Well, that was a surprise. Not bad at all. Rules say that the Warrior's prime requisites are Str and Dex, and that I can replace one of these stats with a value of 14 to reflect the aptitude for the class. Since Str is already at 14, I think I'll have Dex upped to 14 as well.

So, I've rolled up my attributes, and decided my character class, and adjusted my attributes accordingly. Next is to flesh out my new Warrior character in Stars Without Number. Here are the stats at this stage:

This is, of course, Andy Lau in Future X-Cops attire. I'll use him as
Philip Tang for now to give me a face and coolness to aspire to.

Strength      14 (+1)
Intelligence  11
Wisdom        10
Dexterity     14 (+1)
Constitution  13
Charisma      10

Let's roll up his name using the Resources section. I'll take a male first name from the English section and a surname from the Chinese section for this guy: 90 (Philip) + 78 (Tang).

Okay, Philip Tang, let's see what you're made of in the next installment of Reading Room.

Neo-clone build: Encantadians as adventurers -- class selection again!

Alena
Class: Rogue

Amihan
Class: Fighter

Danaya
Class: Cleric

Pirena
Class: Wizard

So, decision time. As much as I'd like to fiddle with the rules, I think that classic class builds should be fine for now. So I'm going with four basic character classes. I can argue for Assassin, Druid, Monk, Knight, Barbarian, and other classes but for now this is it.

Next: the rolling up of stats!

C&C Character Sheet: Yuri "Presto Link" Aranos

Another Labyrinth Lord to Castles & Crusades conversion from a PBP game. It's incomplete as I have to review the mage abilities and spells, but here's the preliminary attempt.

Yuri is a brave (some might say foolhardy) mage who often charges forward despite his inability to take a hit. So far, he has also been exceedingly lucky.

C&C Character Sheet: Boris Dmitrov

This is an attempted conversion from the original Labyrinth Lord character sheet to a Castles & Crusades one for one of the PCs in my stalled online Play-by-Post game called "Shadows Over Mystara": Boris Dmitrov lives!

This is an image capture from a PDF dump from an Excel Sheet (for those who care about such things).

I've color-coded the Primary Attributes as dark red, for easy visual cues. It may make the Challenge Base values redundant, but since I'm teaching folks who don't know the rules it should be a good reminder. Wait, I'm still learning the rules too -- it's a good reminder for me!

(Updated Jan 29, 2011) Changed to have a Melee and Ranged To Hit line item and the formula for the Challenge Class.