These can be things like bladed combat, bow, initiative, defense, shield, the various magic schools, and thief skills. Each character starts with a fixed set of skills they can learn and a rating in each. Using your bonus points you can improve the skill levels as you se fit. Combat Combat is resolved in turns, with characters taking a turn based on their initiative. In general the higher the initiative the sooner in a turn the character can act.
Characters have a fixed number of hit and spell points.
If a character is reduced to zero hit points he does not die unless all characters in the party are so reduced. If at least one remains standing, the others will be revived to one hit point, but they do not get any experience for the battle. Spell points can be used to cast spells, no surprise. Based on the skill of the mage or priest in various schools of magic different spells may be cast. The more powerful spells require more spell points to cast of course, and even the bets mage can only cast a handful of the best spells before running out and needing to rest.