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.

Like distance, area of effect only governs skills where a “level of experience” might reasonably govern how large an area can be affected. A physical object like a net or a bomb would be based upon the size of the net or the explosive properties of the bomb, not the level of the creature performing the action. Like distance, this generally applies to mental or magical effects and would only apply to skills where the degree is such that someone other than the creature themselves or the creature touched could be affected.

One dimensional objects, by definition, wouldn't have an area of effect. Even point to point magic would be governed by the distance metrics above. Therefore, the first magic or mental effects governed by this principle would be multi-dimensional powers and abilities, which we describe below.

Two-dimensional objects are 1 meter per level of the caster x 1 meter per level of the caster. That means a first level character is limited to one square meter, but a fifth level caster would be limited to twenty-five square meters. 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 meter per level of the caster by 1 meter per level of the caster by one level 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 fifth level magician with a third degree fire skill could use it to create sheets of fire that span a plane with a surface area equal to 1 cubic me. 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).