Thanks, this is exactly what I was needing.

As for #'s 3 and 4...I am using a custom battle system that'll give my game a slight SaGa Frontier-ish feel, as in you can see the enemy sprites and only by touching them do you enter a 'battle'. I just wanted to know how to give the party a boost at the start of each quest to keep the game from going back to being too easy after awhile. But I'll give your suggestion a try as well.

Thank again. I really appreciate it.