Levels involve some sense of how much experience a creature has, how long they have lived, and how powerful they have become because of this experience and the wisdom they have gained over their lifetime. Among player characters, this is well understood because a character begins at first level and gains additional levels as they adventure. With creatures those characters will encounter, this is much more arbitrary, but it has the potential to add much more variety, with chieftains or shamans being different from other orcs they govern, with ancient vampires being different from recently spawned ones, etc.

Distance, in this sense, does not involve how far away a physical item can be thrown or shot. That would be governed, instead, by the Strength attribute of the creature, the mechanism of the throwing or shooting motion, and the aerodynamics of the object itself. Instead distance, in this case, involves some sort of magical or mental skill where experience and power would be more likely to govern the distance away the skill could be created, sent, or maintained. This distance is only calculated in cases where there is a distance. Some skill that can only be performed by touch or only happens on the character themselves does not have an additional distance involved. That would generally require a higher degree of that skill.

Example: A magician with first degree fire defense magic can make himself or the character touched immune to fire. A second degree magician can make a person at a distance equal to one meter per level of the magician immune to fire. A fourth degree magician could surround a group up to one meter per level away with a sphere or other three dimensional object to protect them.

One dimensional objects aren’t really one dimensional in the actual sense, but they are generally considered as something which is only large enough to affect one opponent at the end of it. A character with the second degree fire attack skill could conceivably hurl a grenade, shoot an arrow, or even throw a spear-sized object at an opponent as long as they weren’t trying to use it in a way as to affect more than one opponent.

Two-dimensional objects are 1 sq meter per level of the caster. Two dimensional objects are generally walls or floors, but they could be circles, squares, hexagons, or whatever other shape a character wants them to be as long as they are of a level sufficiently high to make them as large as they need to be. For the purpose of area of effect, weapons like dancing hammers or swords are considered two-dimensional.

Three dimensional objects are 1 cubic meter per level of the caster. Three dimensional objects can be cubes, spheres, half spheres, elaborately shaped prisms, or any other three dimensional objects that make sense.

Example: A magician with first degree fire attack magic can cause things to start on fire by touch, including candle wicks, swords, arrows, or clothing. A second degree can hurl the fire in the form of fireballs or light things like campfires or candles from a distance or weapons. A third degree could use it to create walls of fire or two fireballs. A fourth degree could use it to create firestorms.

Does that mean a fourth-degree skilled character could make a key of a substance they are skilled in? Yes, theoretically, provided they know exactly how that key should be shaped. They couldn’t just say that a key is shaped right to fit the door lock they are looking at. They’d have to have some knowledge of how the inside mechanism of that lock functioned. And the substance they used would have to be something that could affect a lock without destroying it.

The length of time a skill can last is one round per level of the caster (but it drains an equal amount of mana each round as it did when it was initially cast).