[KDLadage]

I would, personally, break skill levels into brackets...

05 and below -- You do not so much as have this skill, as you have a rating to measure your inevitable failure.

06 - 08 -- Raw Beginning levels. This is the skill of a person that has no real aptitude for the skill, or has limited training in the skill. Might be able to handle the most basic tasks if given regular supervision and feedback. Many times, this will represent the default use of a skill.

09 - 11 -- Apprentice/Journeyman levels. This is the skill of a person that is not quite up to the task of using this skill on a professional basis, but has some basic or fundamental knowledge of the skill and can handle routine tasks with minor supervision.

12 - 14 -- Professional levels. This is the skill of a person that can handle most tasks with the skill, and could use this skill as the basis of a carreer. The knowledge of the skill goes well beyond the fundamentals and reaches into the theories and practical applications of the skill. This is someone that could teach the skill's fundamentals.

15 - 17 -- Seasoned Professional levels. This is the skill of a person that can not only handle the general, common tasks of the skill, but can easilly apply the knowledge of this skill to perfom tasks that are only tangentially related to the core theories. This is someone that can teach the skill's practical applications.

18 - 20 -- Expert levels. This is the skill of a person that can not only apply the skill to tangentially related areas of knowledge, but is quite capable of expanding the body of knowledge in the field into areas that others may not see as related until after this individual has completed their work and can demonstrate this new application. This is someone that can teach experts, and invent new (related) knowledge bases.

21 - 23 -- Master levels. This is the skill of a person that has demostratable mastery of the skill. No area of the skill is beyond the scope of this person's knowlege. They understand the theories, applications, related areas, how to expand those areas -- but not only into related but even into unrealted fields of knowledge. This individual can apply the knowledge they have in this skill no nearly anything they do, making them better at those tasks as well.

24 and higher -- Legendary levels. This is the skill of a person that Masters defer to when they are at a loss as to how to use a skill effectively.