Welcome to Atys, Olepi
Afflictions are very handy spells but I wouldn't call them crowd control - afflictions only work so long as you maintain a link (and a couple of seconds after that breaks). Casting another spell will break any link you've made so controlling a crowd of more than one is a bit difficult
Pulling with magic, finishing with melee is a perfectly sound way to go at first, but you're likely to run into problems later on when you try that on social animals.
The Ryzom con system shows itself in your target window. Select a target and it will be graded by colour (0-20 green, 0-50 blue, 50-100 yellow, 100-150 orange, 150-200 red, 200+ purple - roughly) and stars (1* to 5* white then 1* and 2* black for individuals), but this is an absolute rating and not relative to your own abilities. The quickest way to tell if something is dangerous is to attack it
