The solution I always liked better was the D100. This gives a much bigger spread and makes skilling up become very impactful along with giving ranges of ability. This used in combination with a skill based system can be really well done.
There was a Table Top system back in the day (want to say early Runequest, that did this. If you used a skill enough during the session the GM had you roll a percentile die against your skill level if the roll exceeded your skill level then it was raised. So someone with a 50% skill level in lets say sword, had a 50% chance each session to raise the skill. If he was at 75% the chance to raise the skill was now 25%. This allowed a skill advancement system that did not rely on "EXP" and still made higher "level" harder to attain.
Call of Ctulhu had a similar skill advancement system.
