The various D&D skill/ability systems vary in how much they rely on ability scores and level; some abilities (e.g., forage in B/X) are unrelated to both things.
We could discuss endlessly about which way is better. I like a mix of both. Should a 15th level fighter be equal or better at foraging or knocking down doors than a 1st-level fighter?
Well, you can decide for yourself. Here is how.
Give a rating, from 0 to 5, to assess how important you think ability scores are. Do the same for levels - the sum should be 5 most of the time. For example, if you think ability scores are much more important than levels, you can rate abilities 4 and levels 1.
Simply multiply your ability score and your level for the number you chose, sum it up, and you have your percentile of exceeding.
For example, if you have Strength 12, Level 5, your chance to knock down a door would be 53% (12x4+5x1).
Note that you could choose in a case-by-case basis, e.g.:
- Open doors is mostly strength, but pick locks requires more levels/skills.
- Picking locks could be Dexterity improved by only 1% per level for all classes except thieves, that get 5% per level. Same for forage and rangers.
- For tasks that are too easy or too difficult, just double or halve the percentages.
This requires some adjudicating and math, but it is overall a decent solution because:
- It is quite instinctive and easy to grasp.
- Every ability point and every level matters.
- Heroes get better at EVERYTHING, if only slightly.
- It replaces thieve's skills quite well and also gives a clear answer to "what if you're not a thief"?
- Adds no complexity to the character sheet.
I'm tempted to say each level gets you at least 2% better at (basically) everything, with each ability point giving you 3% as a starting rule.
(Even better, for some old school flavor, each score could be paired with a percentile; Figgen, pictured above, has Strength 13/55%, but we'd probably need to write down some skill percentages. Or just allow "trained" PCs to "flip" the dice, so they can count a 73 as a 37, for example, which gives the thief spectacular odds, or use some kind of "advantage" system, or just add 25% chance if trained, etc).
I'm also tempted to create a whole system out of this, with fighters improving their attacks 5% per level, plus percentile magic and saving throws... but I probably won't.
So, anyway, if you needed a new skill system (we have a few dozens, and we only needed one...), you've got it.
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