Skill Gain Information
As always, we'll start out with the basics. Skill gain is a large aspect of character development in LOK, as higher skill means more powerful spells, better attacks, etc. and many players spend time trying to gain skill. Basically, you want to be at high risk if you are gaining weapon skill and at low risk if you are gaining magic skill. This is definitely not all the information on skill gain that can be useful, but is a good starting point. Another basic factor is "kills". You gain more skill if you kill a monster with a spell or weapon instead of just hitting it with it. For more advanced information, check out the next section or the Skill Gain section appropriate to your desired skill.
As mentioned in the Basic Section, risk is a huge factor in weapon skill gain, and a non-existant factor in magic skill gain. Many people like to "spar" to gain skill at lower levels of weapon or MA skill. "Sparring" is where 2 people stand somewhere (usually in a boxing ring) and fight each other with the weapon they want to gain skill with. The way this works is that as you are getting hit by the other person, your swings gain large amounts of skill because of high risk, especially if the other person is high level. At lower skill levels, 10 minutes of sparring can gain you 2 levels of skill, depending on who you spar with. At higher levels (12+) it may take 2 full sacks of balm to gain you a rank in a skill. As a result, most of people stop sparring at higher skill levels, unless they are helping out someone with a lower level.
Weapon Skill (along with MA skill) is generally considered harder to gain skill in than Magic Skill. "Sparring", which is detailed in the above section, is a great way to gain skill levels if you are between 1 and 8 skill. Beyond that, the time you spend sparring could be spend killing monsters and earning experience and treasure. Risk is a huge factor in this skill. If you are at a high risk that is not life-threatening, you will gain skill much faster than swinging at a kobold. Life-threatening situations would be where you have less than 35% of your hit points, because below that point you concentrate on surviving more than skill gain. When using a weapon, you can gain skill with it no matter what hand is holding the weapon. Many weapon users like to have a BBS in their right hand, along with a Returning Weapon in their left hand to pick off monsters. Weapon skill can accelerate rapidly if you don't wear armor or shielders, but this will put you in much greater danger, so do it at your own risk.
Martial Arts Skill is overall the best blocking skill, and is open to every class. Any class can gain high levels of MA skill, but only MAs can train above 1st Dan, which makes it much more difficult for non-MAs to gain skill. Martial Arts skill is another great candidate for "Sparring"-which is detailed in the "Advanced Skill Gain Information" Section above. Martial Artists must also be at a high risk to gain skill (although not life-threatening), and they are often at more of a risk than other classes because they usually don't wear armor. The fact Martial Artists can block extremely well at high levels skills makes them somewhat easier to gain skills in than weapons, as MAs are always at risk because of their lack of armor. If you want to increase the speed of MA skill gain, take off all shielders -but do it at your own risk, because you will have no protection if you get stunned.
Magic Skill is the only type of skill that doesn't require risk. Magic users gain just as much skill standing in town as they do in the middle of Undead. The key to quick magic skill gain is mana points. The lower you are on mana when you cast the spells, the more skill you gain. The more mana a spell takes each time its cast, the more skill you will gain, which goes hand-in-hand with the fact that higher-level spells give greater skill gain. In this respect Thaums have it easy at first: cast Raise Dead even at Shaman skill, even if it fails skill is still gained. If you are waiting for someone, cast spells that don't really affect anything but take lots of mana- Summon Phantasm and Raise Dead are good candidates for Thaums, as are Wizard Eye and Protect from Fire & Ice for Wizards. Thieves will find it very helpful to cast Make Recall Ring whenever they have the chance as well. Since magic skill requires no risk, standing in town casting spells can gain you skill at a steady pace, although it slows to a crawl at higher skills, when it would be better to go out and gain experience as you gain skill (along with the fact the kill bonus will help increase skill). To sum it all up: Higher mana per spell and lower mana when you cast = Faster skill gain =)
Ahh, training. It sucks up money like there's no tomorrow, but can help greatly in the steady gain of skill levels. At lower levels, training is very cheap, but as you get to higher skills (15+), training can cost you millions. When trainers train you, they train you for 5 ranks worth of training at that skill level. For example, if you were at 4th rank and trained, you would have enough training until you reached 9th rank of your skill. On the other hand, gaining skill levels cuts the skill training in half: i.e., train at 9th rank, then gain a skill level and instead of having 4 ranks of training you will only have 2 ranks of training to your name. You can tell when trainers won't take anymore money, because they tell you to go off and practice. If you put down money and they take it all, that means you can still buy more training at your current level. Training is extremely helpful, as it greatly speeds up how quickly you gain ranks of a skill. Some skills, such as MA skill, can't be trained by non-MAs above 1st Dan, and non-Magic Users can't train in Magic at all.
Do- Train, Train, Train!
Do Not-Constantly be in a life-threatening situation, you will gain NO skill
Do-"Spar" at lower levels of Weapon and MA skill
Do Not-Try to gain weapon skill by swinging at an amoral NPC
Do-Cast spells while waiting to meet someone or for something to appear
Do Not-Never, ever script! (Scripting is using a program to repeatedly cast spells for you while you are somewhere else)
Do-Use Weapons in your right hand
Do Not-Use weapons in your left hand and try to gain skill with them
Do-Did I mention Train? =)
Do Not-Attack or cast harmful spells on PCs or NPCs for skill gain
Weapon Skill-Master (16)
Martial Arts-White Sash (16)
Wizard Skill-Magus (19)
Thaum Skill-Master of Earth & Sky (18)
Thief Magic SKill-Thief of Wands (16)
Thieving Skill-Incredible (16)
I am not absolutely sure of these, and if you know someone who achieved higher than these skill levels or who did achieve these levels (besides Snafu) then please mail me.