Gaming: Doing more with skills in 4th edition D&D

The main tabletop RPG I play is Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition, in large part because it dominates the market but also because of the perks it offers because of its size. Notably electronic tools and the level of product testing and support that comes with a high market share. In any event, this edition is fairly tactical combat-oriented, which makes for interesting game play but also results in a focuses the story end on combat, in sometimes problematic ways, which isn't particularly my thing. The system also has skills, which allow for a broader range of options when interacting with the world, and structured skill challenges which attempt to aid game masters in requiring their players to use their wits and their character's abilities in settings other than the battle mat.

Unfortunately, I don't think skill challenges really achieve this goal even as the math underlying them is refined. After speaking with friends and reading a mix of RP design blogs and listening to a lot of Paul Tevis's  Have Games, Will Travel I think I know why. Skills are a sub-system that as Ryven Cedrylle explains doesn't quite mathematically match up with the rest of the game. Thus skills are most often used against easy, medium, and hard DCs rather than the defenses of monsters or other player characters. Making skill challenges substantially more sophisticated would thus set up more of an alternate system that some characters would excel at but may simply bore the rest. If I want the rest of the game to be as robust as the combat, I either need to switch over to other games or find ways to integrate the core math of combat and of skill challenges.

So, for those who actually know 4e, here's my shot at the latter. I think the core problem is that the ability to rapidly raise skills is critical to allow player characters to be at all effective with skills that their stats don't naturally support. It also means that there's not really a reason to chase flat bonuses for skills a character is naturally good at which would hopefully redirect attention towards feats that allow use of the skill in more interesting ways. Once the systems actually align, I think a logical next step would be to introduce skill attack powers, which could be substituted in like skill utility powers but that would make sense outside of combat. Here's how I'd do it:

• Skills typically target reflex/will/fortitude and apply a –5 penalty to compensate for training.
• For skill rolls that don't target a defense, the medium and hard difficulties should follow the same mathematics as monster defense do.
• Item that boost skills should match the mechanics for items that boost attacks and defenses.
• The ever present +2 bonuses to skills are replaced with one of the following bonuses.
  • A scaling feat bonus +1 at heroic, +2 at paragon, +3 at epic.
  • Switching a skill to a complementary stat: int/dex; wis/cha; str/con.
  • If the bonus is to a skill that has already been switched to a complimentary stat, than instead base the skill off any stat of the player's choosing.
  • Provide a +1 bonus that stacks with the scaling feat bonus but not with other +1 bonuses.
• +3 bonuses are a little tougher to think through.
  • Allow substitution of another skill that uses the same stat (this would work in conjunction with the +2 bonuses that switch the base stat).
  • Apply any two of the +2 bonuses.
• Feats or abilities that grant +4 bonuses or more would instead grant at will rerolls. +4 to use the second result, +5 to use the the better result, +6 to get the reroll after knowing the outcome.