Getting a character from the realm

[JustAGuy]

You know, I'm getting a bit tired of this "second round" of Diablo 2. I had quit after 1.09. I came back for 1.10 and have enjoyed myself immensly. If I do quit now, I'd still like to get a copy of my pride and joy characters; I put a lot of work into those badboys, and I wouldn't mind playing them in a few months when I get my nerve back. The problem is, in a few months, they won't exist on the realm.

Enter my problem; it'd be nice to get a copy of the character files that currently only exist on the realm. Anyone know of a program that might help with this? Back in 1.09 I tried to manually re-create my Paladin, but it was insanely time consuming. I used Jamella to recreate the items and character, but there was just too much crap. I should have re-created my high leech +1 paladin class-crafted ring. That was a beauty! But I digress...

Is this even possible? The character file is loaded on the client side at some point, otherwise you wouldn't be able to play the character. Anyway to get at my characters except for on the realm? Obviously, I'm not asking to crack the realm client/server architecture, but rather a way to just save what I've already been using (the character files).

Kinda sounds like I'm asking to hack Diablo 2, but not really; the ATMA program is doing something similar, except it's all offline. I'd like to do something that does not affect realm play at all.