Skills

Your character possesses a few basic skills at the start of the game. Everyone can Beg, Fish, use Sense Heading and Bind Wounds. Some skills (like Elvish or Pick Lock) are only originally known to those of a specific race or occupation, while others that you don't originally know can be learned over time (such as Meditation if you are a spell caster).

In order to use a skill you'll want to place it on an easily accessed hot key button.

To do this:

* Click Abilities
* Right-click on an empty hot button slot
* Click on a skill to assign it to that slot
* Click that Hot Button to use the skill

Open your inventory ( i) and click Skills to see how proficient you are in any given skill. The more you use a skill, the better you become at it. When your skills improve messages appear in your chat window.