archer

Does anyone have a picture of the Ukrainian Olympic Javelin Team? edit: Nevermind, found one.

When a business makes its employees read Who Moved My Cheese, that's a sign that the business is planning on screwing over its employees and is actively planning to keep finding new ways to screw its employees. Hey, change is inevitable. But you don't make change any easier by getting employees all worked up about changes which haven't happened yet and which might never happen. An anxious and fearful employee is not a happy nor a productive employee.

Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warns that weapons convoys coming into Ukraine are legitimate military targets. ==== Russia has threatened to retrieve its two cosmonauts from the International Space Station and leave the 4 NASA astronauts and one European astronaut stranded. I don't know the launch schedule to know how serious of a problem that might cause. Also to be considered, the head of Roscosmos, Russia's space agency, when commenting on it went out of his way to point out that if the ISS crashed back to Earth that it'd likely hit somewhere other than Russia and provided a map as a visual aid. If I were the kind of man who would take such a thing to be a threat, I'd take that to be a threat. ==== Russia shells a mosque in Mariupol which ought to thrill the 16,000 Muslims which Putin is saying he's bringing from the Middle East to fight in Ukraine. Wonder which side they'll fight on? Muslim Chechen volunteers are already fighting alongside of Ukrainian forces. 80 civilians including children and Turkish citizens were taking shelter inside the mosque when it was shelled.

I figured you more for a Hymie man.

My wife got excited because of a delivery she received. She got a new heavy-gauge wok that she had her eye on for a while. I asked her if she remembered to get the special footwear for it. She looked puzzled for a moment. Then she sighed and said, “Okay, lay it on me. Tell me your dad joke.” I said, “I don’t know what you mean by that, but it is my understanding that they have boots that are made for wokking.”

I would say "I admire your restraint." But frankly, I'd admire it more if you'd hit him with it. The book was highly insulting.

I'm insanely busy (and insane) so I'm not getting around to this forum very often, not to mention not having the time at this moment to give your question a ton of thought. Rather than putting it out as an open question, you might have more luck roughing through some idea then posting it up for people to discuss and fine tune. People here are notorious for wanting to kibitz rather than think from scratch. (And/or asking anyone who seems interested to help you rough through an idea before posting it up for consideration at large.) I think your question is something that needs to be addressed. And if you (we, whoever) comes up with something likely, HERO might adopt that as part of their standards for writing a supplement and for how it's described to potential customers. HERO: "We consider a normal superhero campaign to be(blah, blah, blah) so when writing for that your agents should be (---), peer opponents should be (---), and a boss should be something like (---). But for a low level superhero campaign it should be (---). For a high level campaign (---)." I think it'd help to standardize writing by various authors enough to that a buyer isn't disappointed from buying something that's completely inappropriate for his needs. D&D's got a worse product. But they've managed for decades to be able to sell their consumers something that's pretty much what the person is wanting to buy. Most people are buying HERO products online these days rather than reading the back cover in a game store. So it'd be pretty simple to put a "suggested level" section on the HERO website or on DriveThruRPG describing each product and printed on the inside of the book.

Didn't Jonathan Swift do something with this concept?

news roundup ==== The Central Bank of Russia announced today that Russians receiving transfers from foreign banks can only withdraw cash in rubles. (So the bank keeps the money that's worth something and the person who owns the money can only get money that's worth-less and less.) The bank said on Tuesday that until 9 September, banks could not sell hard currency to Russian citizens. (So you can withdraw foreign currency from your account up to $10,000 if you have that kind of money already in your account. But the bank won't sell you foreign currency no matter how many rubles you offer them. Which gives you an idea of how much the bank thinks a ruble is worth, and will be worth.) ==== G7 nations and the EU have announced they're withdrawing Most Favored Nation status from Russia (as the US did earlier today). Western governments announced plans to impose punitive tariffs on Russian trade but have not yet announced what those tariffs will be. Biden announced plans to ban the import of seafood, vodka, and diamonds from Russia (skipping over tariffs entirely). ==== Russia banned Whatsapp and Instagram after banning Facebook last week. Facebook clarified their policy of allowing calls for violence against Russian soldiers, Russian officials, and Putin saying that now they would only be allowed if the user is inside of Ukraine. (Presumably the platform had been deluged with such content.) YouTube has blocked all state-funded Russian media channels including RT and Sputnik. And will start removing any content which seeks to trivialize the war. ==== Putin claims to have 16,000 fighters from the Middle East lined up to go fight against Ukraine. (Translation for white nationalists: Putin has recruited 16,000 Muslim Arabs to go kill the white Christians of Ukraine.) ==== Warsaw and Krakow in Poland are no longer accepting refugees because both cities are overwhelmed. There's 2.5 million Ukrainian refugees now with the vast majority of them having escaped to Poland. ==== EU agrees to double their financial military support to Ukraine, increasing it to one billion Euros. The Eu foreign policy chief said the financial support will be provided "immediately". ==== EU leaders at a summit in Versailles not to offer Ukraine a fast track to EU candidate status, with some members arguing that they didn't really have a fast track process in place and others citing domestic political concern over bringing Ukraine in during the middle of an invasion. ==== Moscow admits that shelling a Ukrainian psychiatric hospital and risking the inmates' escape might have been a mistake considering how hard the Ukrainians who AREN'T crazy are fighting. Just kidding. ==== White House press secretary Psaki briefs 30 top TikTok influencers on what's happening in Ukraine in hopes they will be able to mitigate the coordinated Russian influence and disinformation campaign on the platform. ==== A couple of days ago, this effort of paying for Russian aircraft was coming from a Ukrainian defense company. But with the US and the EU both promising massive amounts of new funding, maybe the Ukrainian government is taking over. It's gotta be cheaper to buy used Russian jets than to buy your own jets at retail then shoot down the Russian jets. Ukraine is already offering amnesty to Russian soldiers and pilots. ==== A number of foreign sources are saying that Biden today signed an order banning the sale of physical dollars to Russia and prohibiting the export of dollars to Russia. The EU did that with the Euro roughly a week ago. However, I haven't found a major European media source or a US source saying that. And if it was an executive order, it hasn't been placed in the Federal Register yet. It's a good move to tighten the screws to Russia if it happened. ==== Numerous reports of a Russian plane which took off from Belarus, flew into Ukraine airspace, then turned back to bomb a village in Belarus. Speculation it's a false flag to get Belarus further into the war and to get the ones who are fighting (for Russia) to fight harder. Ukrainian officials warn to expect a major incursion from Belarus shortly. ==== Ukraine says power to Chernobyl power plant still not restored despite Russian claims yesterday. ==== A very interesting Twitter thread talking about how the organization of Russian units magnifies the effect of the loss of even small amounts of equipment, which helps perhaps to explain why Ukraine is being so successful. And the US military document from which he gets of lot of his analysis. https://www.benning.army.mil/armor/earmor/content/issues/2017/spring/2Fiore17.pdf edit: OMG is that a fantastic link. Written after the 2014 Russia-Ukraine war (and after the Russian involvement in Syria) and draws it's analysis from there. Answers a lot of questions of this war, before this war ever started: Why hasn't Russia shut off Ukraine's internet? Why are Russian units grinding to a halt after taking losses? Why wasn't Putin's denial that they're using conscript troops credible? Why are Russian forces being more effective in besieging cities than in other areas? What's Russia's likely goal? Are Russian forces likely burning out after being at war for three weeks? What's Russia likely to use Belarussian forces for if they fully join in the war?

insomnia news roundup ==== Oil was at $139 per barrel on Monday but has dropped daily since then down to $108. A good portion of that is due to the UAE agreeing to increase output to compensate for lost Russian production. ==== Biden rumored to be requesting Friday that Congress revoke most-favored-nation status for Russia (aka permanent normal trade relations). That used to be a status which countries had to earn and Russia and China each at one point in time made concessions in order to try to get it. (And I've argued for years that China should no longer have it.) In any case, with Russia stealing over 500 leased commercial airplanes and openly saying their businesses can violate patents whenever they want to, it's time to not treat them as if they are friendly trading partners. Not to mention their latest threat to seize the assets of any company that's stopped doing business in Russia and open it back up again under Russian government management. Losing MFN status opens the door to imposing tariffs on goods from a country which wouldn't otherwise be allowed under World Trade Organization guidelines. It also means that things wouldn't automatically snap back to normal if Russia ended the invasion or negotiated a deal with Ukraine. ==== Putin is publicly asking for foreign fighters to join the invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine alleges Russia is trying to recruit Ukrainian prisoners and citizens to fight for them but Russia denies that at this time. Of course a couple of days ago Putin denied he was using conscripted troops in Ukraine until his Ministry of Defense confirmed that they really were, so who knows? ==== WHO advises Ukrainian health facilities to destroy any dangerous pathogens they might be studying due to the increased rate at which Russia is targeting healthcare facilities.

Well, "fast track" doesn't have to mean "cutting corners". A huge amount of time is wasted waiting for the FDA to get around to looking at the data that's been collected then sitting on their decision before they allow the company to move to the next part of the process. Bureaucratically it's more of a "move this item to the front of the line" and "do your damned job already rather than spending your time picking costumes for the FDA Halloween party". I looked into the fast tracking of vaccines when that became a topic of conversation early in the pandemic. And there was typically huge slabs of time wasted waiting on the regulatory agency to do their job and waiting for the announcement after they'd completed their jobs (as opposed to the time spent actually doing that job once they started) and other huge slabs of time wasted because the company didn't put money behind getting large numbers of volunteers quickly so they could do their studies. So there are ways to fast track without impacting the quality of the research. "The "problem guy" gets forced out, one way or another, or he learns to play ball." Not that attempts won't be made. But I'd think it'd be extremely difficult to do that to a non-profit as opposed to a for-profit company. If the other companies can't squeeze your bottom line and make you susceptible to your shareholders ousting you, they've lost most of their non-regulatory leverage. And with the administration being in sympathy with the goal of the non-profit, it'll be difficult to move the regulatory agencies against them

I love beef and chicken liver fried. I like pork liver as braunschweiger or liverwurst, I've not tried it prepared in other ways. Not fond of other organ meats that I've tried (bird gizzard and various heart).

I misspoke and meant to say college rather than pro. I never cared for pro basketball (though I was a fan of the red, white, and blue basketballs).

I like going to the DH. 1) It helps keep players healthy by giving them a virtual "day off". 2) Allows you to bring back good players from injuries and get them back into the groove gradually. 3) Extends the careers of some players who are good batters but who've lost a step in fielding. Does it mess up some of the strategy of when to bring pitchers in and out? Sure. But watching pitchers hit sucks. And watching a pitcher who is pitching well get pulled so someone else can bat really sucks. So more upside than downside. Probably better for baseball as a business to keep stars playing. ==== I don't see a problem with shifts. You beat a shift by batting over the shift, being more patient and going for a walk, or batting to the field opposite the shift. When clubs start drafting players who can beat a shift and training players on how to beat the shift, the shift will take care of itself. If a player is one-dimensional enough that he can't beat a shift, he's not deserving of the big money. 2 cents ==== Mixed feelings on a pitch clock. I don't particularly like slow games. But a large part of the game is the catcher and pitcher trying to figure out how to deal with a batter. When pro basketball went to a shot clock, it was so short that all thoughts of setting up an offense went out the window and the game became unwatchable for me. If the pitch clock is "get the ball, throw the ball" with no pause to figure out what to do, that wouldn't be a move in a good direction.

News roundup ==== Russia says its businesses can steal patents from anyone in ‘unfriendly’ countries - Washington Post ==== "Panic is spreading among the personnel of the Russian troops due to the huge losses in manpower and equipment." The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported this on Facebook the day before yesterday. Normally such I wouldn't take such claims as being newsworthy because it's practically the boss's job to claim the other side is falling apart, whether it's true or not. But then we get this from a number of sources out of an area in the north-central part of Ukraine. That's a lot of equipment to abandon all at once. That area is defended by the Ukrainian army's 1st Tank Brigade so it's not like the Russians are running away in panic from just poorly-trained civilians armed with random anti-armor weapons...but still. ==== 550 of the Canadians who've arrive to fight have been formed into their own brigade and are deployed in the Kiev area. ==== The US House of Representatives has approved a massive spending bill that would rush $13.6 billion in US aid to Ukraine. The Senate is expected to approve it today before they break for the weekend. Have of it is humanitarian aid, the other half is military aid. So basically $6.9 billion in military aid. To put that in perspective, Ukraine before the war spent around $5 billion per year on its military. That amount was 3% of its GDP. To put that in perspective, NATO members are supposed to spend at least 2% of their GDP on defense spending but most of them don't bother. And of course this is in addition to the previous money and equipment that's already come from the US and the billions in money and equipment that's already come from other countries. Ukraine is getting likely more than a decade's worth of military spending poured into their country over the course of one month. So now you have the context to appreciate the video. This is very recent, at least since the coldsnap/snowstorm went through the Kiev area. That's a heck of a lot of gear.... ==== < tongue-in-cheek > Russia has been claiming Ukraine belongs to it because they were for a short time part of the same country together. In historic terms, India was part of England for much longer. Could England reclaim India? How about Australia? Putin claims Lithuania as Russian territory because it was once part of Russia for a decade then the Soviet Union. But Lithuania and Poland were (voluntarily) one country for much longer (more than two centuries). Doesn't Poland have a superior right to conquer Lithuania because it's Polish territory? Russia's been financially supporting the Texas separation movement despite the fact that Texas was a republic for only a couple of decades and has been part of the United States for more than 170 years. Isn't that inconsistent? California has never been a separate nation but Russia financially supports the California separatist movement. The same goes for the Quebec separatist movement. Inconsistent? ==== Facebook and Instagram temporarily allows calls for violence against Russians soldiers and officials ==== Russia helps out with sanctions against Russia https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60689279 Russia implements an export ban of telecoms, medical, vehicle, agricultural, and electrical equipment, as well as some forestry products such as timber...so that no foreign country can buy such things. The economy ministry said further measures could include restricting foreign ships from Russian ports...so that they couldn't deliver goods to Russia nor take on exports from Russia. The article's a little unclear, to me, whether the sanctions extend to just the countries which have sanctioned Russia or whether it applies to all countries except for the ones specifically on Russia's list of friends. ==== US officials deny reports that it is sending Patriot anti-missile systems to Ukraine. (I hadn't thought that very likely.) ==== Interpol decides not to kick Russia out. But says it will now begin monitoring Russia's use of Red Notices to harass and track down dissidents and Ukrainian politicians. Also Russia is now forced to send requests through Interpol central, so it can decide on the validity of the request, rather than send requests directly to individual nations in Interpol. Russia is currently responsible for 44 percent of the publicly available Interpol red notices. - The Guardian That's as reasonable of a compromise as I guess anyone could expect, if they weren't going to kick Russia out. ==== The stalled Russian convoy forces are starting to deploy off of the road. Some appear to be just moving off into nearby trees. Other vehicles appear to be deploying in a coordinated fashion, likely as part of an effort to encircle Kiev enough to cut off resupply or utilities. I've lost track of how many days they've been stalled in place but "hey, let's move off into the trees where we're less visible" should have dawned on someone PDQ. Or maybe they were just looking for shelter from the wind and snow. Of course, perhaps the drop in temperature and the snowstorm has made moving off the road itself more feasible. But if that's the case, as soon as it warms up a bit, a large number of them will get stuck. ==== Russia’s energy ministry has claimed that Belarusian specialists have restored electricity supply to the Chernobyl. No corroboration. - Reuters ==== A humanitarian convoy trying to reach Mariupol today has been forced to turn around due to fighting. Civilians still haven't been allowed to evacuate from there despite it being one of the first places where humanitarian corridors were supposed to have been established by agreement with Russia. It hasn't had operational power or water for days. Or food/medicine shipments. - Reuters ==== Following the end of the cold war, Sweden’s defense spending as fallen from 3% of GDP in the early 1980s to around 1% in recent years. Sweden’s government plans to increase military spending to 2% of GDP “as soon as practically possible” - prime minister, Magdalena Andersson. Sweden is considering NATO membership where governments are expected to spend at least 2% of GDP on defense. ==== Greece sending busses and airplanes to Poland to help relocate refugees from there to Greece. It's already taken in over 50,000 Ukrainian refugees while Poland has taken in around 1.3 million. ==== The Kyiv Independent, said the Kharkiv institute - home to experimental nuclear reactor - had been bombed, citing an announcement from the State Inspectorate for Nuclear Regulation of Ukraine. According to the inspectorate, the facility was struck with damage to the exterior and possibly numerous labs throughout the building.

A non-profit pharmaceutical company is getting into the insulin business. The drug company will provide three types of insulin, which total about 80% of insulin prescriptions in the United States. The products correspond to Lantus, Humalog and Novolog, and will be offered for no more than $30 per vial or $55 for a pack of insulin pens. The insulin will not be available until the first part of 2024 when they expect to obtain approval from the Food and Drug Administration. In the meantime, the company will complete all clinical trials and meet all standards for FDA approval. https://www.standard.net/news/health-news/2022/mar/09/company-to-make-insulin-more-affordable-in-utah/ I'm not an expert at the insulin crisis but the article goes into it a bit. But Biden in the State of the Union mentioned insulin was $300 per vial. So a company wanting to provide it for $30 per vial (before the local pharmacy's markup) would make a significant dent in the problem. FDA fast-track anyone?

Russia Steals $10bn in Leased Aircraft in Response to EU Sanctions https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/16063-russia-absconds-with-10bn-in-aircraft-in-response-to-eu-sanctions More than 500 aircraft total. Large carriers like Aeroflot often lease at least part of their fleet. Russia had ordered leased aircraft not to leave Russian airspace so as to stop repossession attempts (before it stopped commercial flights altogether). The Kremlin also advised its airlines to re-register their foreign-owned aircraft, in what is seen as an effort to thwart the revocation of the planes’ certifications. The moral of the story: Never steal anything small. edit: The Hermitage museum in St Petersburg has demanded the return of art works loaned to Italy. That makes me wonder whether Russia thinks other countries are going to return the favor and just steal Russian property.

I've completely lost track...is that official? The DH thing, of course. I'm already aware of the Rockies.

If you played a lot of one-shot sessions, characters made up to play a module, and a series of "campaigns" which never lasted more than a level or two, things like "level caps" and xp penalties might as well not exist compared to the benefits of IR, a DEX bonus, and IIRC immunity to charm and sleep spells. I think that's where a lot of the D&D elf stigma came from. The designers put in things which limited elves if played in a long-term campaign when many people weren't playing in long-term campaigns. Personally I always played half-elves in that era because you got most of the elf benefits, none of the short-term elf penalties that I recall, and long-term penalties which were never going to happen because campaigns always fell apart. It took a long time before D&D made efforts which more or less balanced races whether played in a long term campaign or in other settings. At least that's my impression since I moved away from D&D as much as possible after that era. 2 cents

I think the main problem with the first Thomas Covenant book was that the author was trying to show off the extent of his vocabulary. I know a hell of a lot of words due to a misspent youth and had to consciously tone things down my first couple of years on the internet. But about a third of the way through that first book, I took one twenty page section as I was reading it and wrote down thirty words that I didn't know the definition to because it finally dawned on me that I didn't know a lot of the words I was reading. It hadn't hurt my understanding of what was going on because they were mainly descriptive words for the background features or environment, but still, it takes a lot to get my attention with "hey, this guy is writing over my head" when it comes to a nontechnical subject. Anyway, I looked up the definitions of those words (because that's what an OCD person does to a list) then moved on. The subsequent books aren't nearly that bad as far as outlandish vocabulary goes. There's nine Thomas Covenant books now, with him as a main character in, I think, six and a half of them. The books read better if you accept him as being a deeply damaged guy who's constantly surrounded by heroes rather than being The Hero.

Russia’s Central Bank has announced a new policy, allowing citizens with foreign currency accounts to withdraw up to $10,000 US until 9 September. Anything above that amount will have to be withdrawn in rubles at the market rate. I have no idea why they think that'll work out. Everyone who has a significant amount of foreign currency accounts to withdraw are going to rush the banks to withdraw that money as quickly as possible before the central bank changes the policy again. And they'll have to change the policy again because everyone will be rushing the banks. Also Head of the Central Bank of the Russia Elvira Nabiullina resigned, but Putin refused to allow her to. https://translate.yandex.com/translate?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcensor.net%2Fua%2Fnews%2F3323249%2Fgolova_tsentrobanku_rf_nabiullina_podala_u_vidstavku_putin_vidmovyv&lang=uk-en ==== UK government announces it intends to detain any Russian aircraft that enters UK airspace. (They were barred from UK airspace officially a couple of days ago but it's a step further to actively force them to the ground and detain them.) ==== At least one humanitarian corridor stayed open long enough to evacuate a significant number of people (from Sumy). Russians fired into at least two others which were supposed to be open Kyiv and Mariupol. I don't have specific news about the other two, Chernihiv and Kharkiv (though if a significant number of civilians had managed to make it out of Kharkiv, I'd expect it to be big news). ==== Russia has been trying to cut a deal with India to sell it oil at a 25% discount off of the world price. ==== Russian’s delegation at peace talks with Ukraine “will not concede a single negotiating point,” reported a RIA news agency today. In recent days, Russian negotiation points have included: 1) Ukraine ceding sovereignty of Crimea and those two breakaway provinces. 2) Compete disarmament of Ukraine. 3) Enshrining "we will never join NATO" into their constitution. So it's a big "in your face" to pretend to negotiate while you're telling the country you're invading that you'll settle for nothing less than their complete disarmament. ==== Systems of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that were monitoring nuclear material at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine have stopped transmitting data, said the agency today, reported Reuters. Yesterday, the same interruption of data was reported at the Chernobyl power plant (so the interruption appears to be deliberate). At the Chernobyl plant, the Russians haven't allowed the staff any relief since it took over the plant more than a week ago. Yesterday, Russia cut off power to the plant which could eventually cause problems because new water to cool the nuclear material can't be pumped in. ==== WHO says the rate of attacks on Ukrainian healthcare facilities is rapidly increasing. ==== Russian stock market to remain closed at least until Friday. ==== UK's ministry of defense says Russia's ministry of defense has confirmed to them that Russia has used thermobaric weapons (fuel-air explosions) in Ukraine. ==== Ukraine’s government has banned exports of wheat, rye, barley, buckwheat, millet, sugar, salt, and meat until the end of this year. Not that anyone with half a brain expected Ukraine to have a surplus for export this year. But since it's a major exporter of food to Europe and the Middle East, it shows you where we're at. ==== The Russian foreign ministry has claimed that its goals in Ukraine would be better achieved through talks and that it does not plan to overthrow the country’s government, reports Reuters. Whew, that's a relief! ==== Warner media (HBO, Cinemax, TNT, TBS, Cartoon Network, CNN) along with the Discovery network's 15 channels (Discovery, Animal Planet, Travel Channel, Science Channel, Cooking Channel, Food Network, etc.) no longer broadcasting in Russia as of today. At some point it's going to be impossible to hide the impact of the war from older Russians who get most of their information about what's going on by watching TV. ==== Temps in Kiev area dropping to as low as -20C today. Troops in that convoy stuck north of of the city are likely to be Russian popsicles inside rolling metal refrigerators. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-troops-convoy-freezing-death-b2031696.html That's only -4F. But when you're in a vehicle with no fuel and with no ground insulation effect, it's much different than being in a house. ==== ==== The Russian Ministry of Defense has supposedly posted this as well.

The U.S. is now energy independent Updated Feb 19, 2022 https://www.axios.com/us-energy-independent-petroleum-2982ed18-9110-4c31-ad67-82abe643f661.html The oil industry stuff that I read in the run up to the war stated that it has been cheaper to purchase oil from Russia for refineries on the east coast (Georgia, Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania) than it's been to ship oil up from Houston. So it's been more of a choice to purchase oil from Russia (due to cost) than a necessity. .

No one will be able to give you an answer which makes rational sense other than that the US is, very suddenly, afraid to have aircraft fry from a NATO airbase into contested Ukrainian airspace, whether its a NATO pilot doing it or a Ukrainian pilot. Perhaps they just got cold feet, after a week of boasting about how they were putting together the deal. Or perhaps Putin backchanneled something to them which makes them think he really will escalate if they do that one particular thing.

Lord of the Flies was the only book I didn't like that I finished (it was high school). Any book where an author has to write an explanation, included in the book, of what all the imagery is supposed to mean...has failed as an author.

I always default to con artist. My wizard is a con artist. Most of his spells help him in some way of being able to accomplish pulling of the con and make people trust him. He's more into the spirit of pulling off the con rather than necessarily making money off of the con. He deeply wants to be popular and to leave each and every mark liking him at the end (rather than being out for his blood). Young, healthy, charismatic (but in more of a subtle manner than a televangelist manner). Some combination of Acting, Charm, Conversation, multiple languages if that's needed to interact with NPC's in the campaign area, Persuasion. A small Transform as a mending and repair (or breaking) spell which can be used on clothing, houses, and carts or just to keep himself looking nice. Or which save his marks enough time and effort to gain their gratitude. Or to break something so he can later repair it in order to gain gratitude. He uses this very liberally to help people because it always helps to have friends. A reliable offensive spell. Probably fire based so it can be used for starting campfires. Some Mental Illusions. An Aid spell with variable result, usable on others. Gives him a way to assist his comrades or make his horse/cart move faster. A ranged shielding spell usable on others, something more flashy than Aid if there's still points available for it. I've preferred something like Force Walls in the past but if magic is frowned upon or feared, it'd be more likely to be a boost to PD or ED. If there's something campaign-specific, perhaps a spell to deal with that. Like a desert campaign would leave him needing a spell to create water and another to dissipate heat. Other than that, it's all interacting favorably with NPC's and trying to amuse his traveling companions. He doesn't see himself as a nice person even when he's actually being a nice person. He sees himself as conning people into thinking he's a nice person. If he mends someone's clothing and they offer him a drink of wine, he's sees that as "I conned someone into giving me a drink of wine". He wants to be remembered and to develop a favorable reputation.