Existing Skill Ranks. Expert/3 would have 24 points, with another +3/level from Intellect, for 33 points. Experts, all Skills were available.

Taking my Human Skills to 3 would cost 12 Ranks. I flicked a mental switch.

I was actually amazed when I clicked over the mental switch, and the existing spaces in my head rolled back wider and further, deepening what I knew and applications thereof. All those Skill Ranks acquired by going to high school, college, more college, and work kind of evaporated and expanded into the areas I wanted and needed now.

Yeah, somehow I didn't think ranks in word processing, typing, accounting, inventory management, and bicycling were going to be of much use to me right now. If I needed them later, I could grab them.

Importantly, being an Expert/3 gave me a default of 3d6+15 Soak, or around 24ish.

Soak was the other cheaty thing monsters hated Class Levels for. Hitting a human so hard their bones should break, yet they get right back up without even shedding blood or limping or whatnot. It was straight foundational magical energy, and absorbed and dispersed attacks like invisible ablative armor. Most of the time, you couldn’t even tell it was working, aside from the fact you were alive instead of dead. Near misses, lucky dodges, scrapes instead of stabs… Soak used whatever was most effective to keep you alive.

When you jumped two hundred feet off a cliff, landed on stone, got up and walked away, well, Soak was a little more obvious.

NPC (non-player character) Classes never maxed Soak at Level One. In fact, I couldn’t feel any other Level One benefits kicking in. But, I still had to choose my First Level Class.

I might just be broken and have two Primary Classes. If not, I had an Expert Class that wouldn’t be moving until I was a Six. Mmm. Oh well. Time would tell.

And I still had 21 Skill Ranks to allocate.

Martial Lore, Sense Motive, Knowledge: Math, Knowledge: Chemistry, Knowledge: Engineering, Calligraphy, Swim.

Martial Lore for the ki-based stuff I was going to need. Sense Motive so I could understand others more deeply and easily, something I was always lacking in my old life, and vitally necessary in a dream. The others were basically nods to the fact I was an eclectic learner in my past life, and I was pretty sure that these Expert Levels had to be treated like cross-class Levels, and cater to both my old life and the strength of the Class.

Martial Lore was also one of the knowledge/lore skills, and Sense Motive was effectively people-reading. Swim was just something from my last life. Not knowing how to swim would just boggle my mind. 3 Ranks would make me a professional, easily able to be an elite lifeguard.

Calligraphy, ‘cause I’d been a reader and a writer, and it was one of the artistic skills that would feed Flowing Waters Swordplay and work with Profound Artisan. My penmanship would be much, much better than my last life.

They all hit, and opened up to 3. I just shook my head at the massive amount of basic knowledge that was there, as if it always had been there and I’d just noticed it. More like it was knowledge returned to me than knowledge that was new. I didn’t just know, I knew what I knew.

Favored Class. It would have been my Favored Class in my last life. I ticked a mental bar on Alchemy, and nothingness melted away and revealed the information. Bonus skill point per Level Favored Class bonus…

And I got a Feat at level One, and a Feat at Three.

As a Forsaken, that meant I got TWO at those Levels!

There were many Feats that could only be taken at Level One. Most of these were Talents, some were Experiences.

Talent. It was stupid, but I was a swordswoman before, and I’d be one again. Natural Swordsman, +1 to hit with Swords, +1 to AC when wielding Swords, +1 to all skill-type rolls when using a Sword, such as Weapon Performances, Smithing them, identifying them, juggling them, etc. Doubled at Ten to +2. Required to become a Lord of the Sword.

My Talent was already there. Wasn't even my choice. I could feel it, as cool and a part of me as it had been in the game. I might have to rely on open hand for now, but by Mithar, I was a swordswoman, and when I got my sword, they'd better fucking watch out!

Experience, Undaunted. Immunity to fear. Right on the boilerplate. I had already died once, and been eaten as a baby. I more than qualified for it on the ‘trauma overcome’ basis.

I opened my eyes and looked at the shadows around. They didn’t look so threatening anymore. Indeed, the whole dreamscape seemed to shiver as I looked upon it. The little bits of dread and despair picking about the edges of my vision had evaporated.

A life without fear. That would be very different than the kind of person I was in the past…

Level Three Feats… would have to wait until Melee/1 was done.

Melee/1, my chosen Primary Class in this life. Choices were Archer, Scout, Monk, Minstrel, Artificer, and Alchemist… and NPC Expert, Noble, and Vizard, if so inclined. I was usually inclined.

Melee/1. I didn’t need the armor profs here, and I might not ever. Remove all armor profs and keep Shields. Exchange for Int to AC as a dodge bonus; Expertise as a Bonus Feat; +1 to AC in light or no armor, all Melee options.

Very abruptly, I became Threat Aware. I started calculating angles, I shifted my feet to a more stable basis, measured spaces and vectors of attack, how to move and how to avoid injury. As of right this moment, I should have an AC of 19, fairly impressive for someone totally nude.

Proficient in simple and standard melee weaponry, thrown weaponry; simple ranged weapons. So, I could use basically any hand to hand weapon I came across. Melees were also decent at throwing weapons like javelins, spears, axes, hammers, and the like. Crazy shit like chakrams and boomerangs, not so much. I could also pop a crossbow or short bow, but not very well.

Start with Improved Unarmed Strike or Improved Grappling. Pick IUS, to go with the nails. Base IUS was ‘Wolverine Style’, meaning ‘anything goes’. Mastery in Wolverine Style was Mastery in IUS, a general increase in unarmed fighting skill. I could pick up Improved Grappling later with Expertise, as a Melee.

Pick Primary Weapons, or Weapon Style. In the game, it had been Sword and Shield, Classic Mitharn. No Shield, so I wouldn’t be able to replicate my build there for some time. I picked IUS and Long Sword, making a Profound Swordswoman. +1 Damage with Primary Weapons, Weapon Mastery for the Class.

Pick Good Saving Throw. Fortitude, of course. Needed it for Forsaken. I’d boost the rest with Techniques.

Pick Favored Class benefit. Melee Class, pick two! Forsaken, pick an additional hit point or skill point. +2 to defending rolls pool against two specific attack maneuvers, I picked Grapple/Grab and Trip. I grabbed an extra hit point, and extra skill point.

Pick Skills from the Class List. Melees had 4 skill points per level, scaling as their Resolve increased, add Int bonus per level, +FC bonus. So, 8 more skill points. Since I was an Expert/3, I could actually put 3 points into a Skill.

Assign Skill Points: 2 into Heal, 2 into Blacksmith, 2 into Jump, and 2 into Weaponsmith.

Cover Your Weakness: 1 point into lowest physical Stat, 1 point into lowest mental Stat. Automatic, in case of tie, Charisma, Wisdom, then Intelligence. Inherent bonus, like my Forsaken bonus, representing a non-magic wielder’s ceaseless self-improvement, covering his weakest points and rounding them out, raising the floor instead of the ceiling. So, +1 to my Strength, and +1 to Charisma. My body trembled again, and something like a fire in my mind ignited, stirring my emotions more easily.

Get awarded Soak. D6+4 for Hit Die, Adventurer = max, 10 Soak awarded. Replaces d6 of Expert/1. +5 Con, +1 FC = 16 Soak. Stacks with 2d6+10 of Expert, for ~33.

+1 Melee Attack Bonus. No Ranged Attack bonus to start, only progressed at 3/4 Levels for Melees.

Pick Techniques. Techniques were like double Feats, and they scaled. Taking Weapon Focus anyone could do, it opened up the Weapon Mastery Tree, granting a +1 bonus to hit with a specific weapon. They were the power of the Melee Class, granting ever-scaling combat ability as we rose in level, consistent and fixed tactics that could work together with amazing synergy constantly, as opposed to the powerful burst effects of Chi-users.

A Melee got one Combat Technique and one Training Technique per Level. As a Forsaken, I also got an extra Feat, as these were Feat-Equivalents.

This was where the meat of building a character came in. I had to be firm on what I wanted to do here.

Weapon Specialization Technique, IUS. Opened Weapon Mastery Tree. Gave Weapon Focus, +1 to-hit (TH) with named weapon. For Melees, with Primary Weapons. Spec doubled Melee Class weapon bonuses for the chosen weapon. So, I’d be +1 to hit, +2 damage with IUS right at level One.

Class Bonus Training Technique, Great Fortitude. I needed to get that as high as possible as fast as possible, because it powered my Null. Being pathetically low Level now, my Null was virtually worthless at Level + Fort Save. Great Fortitude would double from +2 to +4 at Ten, and would also scale with my Weapon Training Bonus, as well as adding other minor synergies with other Feats and Techniques.

Bonus Forsaken Feat, Toughness/1. +3 or +Level or +MAB Health, whatever was highest. So, +3 it was. Health to 18. This also opened the Toughness tree. That wasn’t all so important, except that it tripped the Karma Allocation limits.

You could raise your Level only 1/day, regardless of how much Karma you earned. Likewise, you could take one Mastery advance, learn one spell, Invest/Infuse one magic item, learn a feat, train up a skill, or fortify a Health or Soak point towards your maximum.

Like I said, I had Karma floating around… and I was an Expert/3, so I could take a Toughness/2 advance, which I promptly did. Toughness Mastery/2, add Fort Save to Soak.

+1 Inherent bonus to Constitution for levels 2 and 3 went off, because now they were important. Con advanced to 23. Health now 19. Toughness/2, Fort Save was +2 Class, +6 Con, +2 Great Fortitude Feat, so +10 to Soak, +13 with revised Con bonus to HD. My Soak was now 46.

Which made for a REALLY tough Melee/1!