The melee attack that says Counterstrike is the attack used during the Counterstrike.  In other words, it can't use the more powerful attack for counterstriking.

Basically, you always hit unless a creature uses its Defense to dodge the attack.

Consider that, for example, armor absorbs the damage of a poorly cast Fireball spell, yet the fire still clings to the armor, causing the creature to possibly burn.

If it was Lightning Bolt, you could imagine the same scenario except that the electricity still shakes the creature up enough to Daze or Stun it.

It is something we are planning on doing, but I have no idea when.

One of our design team guys actually made an Excel file that could build spellbooks during our playtesting, but it is way out of date.

Well, Arcanus is the creator of Mage Wars, so his word is law.  Haha!

Just verifying.  Yes, you roll for effect even if you have rolled all blanks on your attack dice.

Sectarus's abilities are top secret right now, sorry.  

The Beastmaster will get Kringer, and when he gets 3 Rage tokens, he turns into Battle Cat.  

It has yet to be determined.  It would most likely include more spellbooks, spells (possibly some new ones), status boards, markers, and counters.  Also, we are wanting to make a much larger arena board to accommodate 4 players.