Skills: spell and skill level

Your experience level and your skill level (for spells and skills) are not quite the same thing. The level of any skill can be raised -- including beyond your "real" level. The effectiveness of most skills depends on their level or on the level difference between you and your opponent.

The higher your skill level, the better. For example, a higher level of combat skills may mean that your hits land more often, and opponents' hits against you land less often. A higher spell level means your offensive magic or prayers deal more damage, and defensive ones bring more benefit. Your curses will land more often: victims will more often fail their spell defense check.

The effectiveness of magic and prayers depends primarily on the class archetype. The base spell level for magical classes comes out slightly below the real level. For warrior classes (warrior, samurai, ranger) or "agile" classes (ninja, thief) this penalty is even greater. Spell levels are also affected by your intelligence or wisdom (for prayers). Clerics and paladins must choose a religion -- otherwise their prayer level will gradually drop until it reaches zero.

Spell levels are also affected by many special skills -- for example, spell craft or improved maladiction -- by remort bonuses and some powerful artefacts. Some items raise the level only of a specific skill group.

The higher your spell level compared to the target's level, the harder it is to resist, and no amount of spell defense on the target fully cancels that. Mastering spell, spell craft and similar skills raise the cast level and cut through spell defense.