Per feedback from the Gameplay forum, I talked things over with some other folk, and we've added:

1) The "difficulty" scale is less generous at low levels, and more generous at higher levels. This accounts for the relative challenge of fighting an NPC of your own level at varying ranks.

1B) The maximum learning rate increases slightly at very high levels.

2) If an NPC is exceptionally weak or tough for their level, the "difficulty" scale accounts for that, in a similar fashion as the experience point code.

3) As your character goes through their lifespan, they will gradually accrue bonuses to learning all abilities. Unnatural aging has no effect on this, and the bonuses do not correspond with the age categories in 'score'. It's enough to know that the longer you've been around, the easier it will get.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com