I started my gaming career with the red D&D Basic boxed set but AD&D 2nd Edition is where I spent most of my time as a gamer.

Under 2nd Edition rules, a Fighter requires 2000 Experience Points to reach 2nd Level. A Kobold slain in one-on-one combat is worth 7 Experience Points, meaning that a 1st Level Fighter acting alone would have to slay 285.7 Kobolds to level up.

Compare those figures to Dungeons & Dragons 3.5: our Kobold-killing Fighter needs 1000 Experience Points to reach 2nd Level, and his tiny, reptilian prey of choice is worth 300 XP if slain in one-on-one combat. That’s 3.3 dead Kobolds to reach 2nd Level, or 282.4 less Kobolds than it would have taken him to level up in AD&D 2nd Edition. [...]

Player’s Handbook 3, which is due out next year, will feature a new mechanic called Skill Powers. Skill Powers are previewed in Dragon #379: D&D Insider subscribers (you should be one) can read about it here.

In short, Skill Powers will be Utility Powers available to characters who are trained in certain skills: for example, your 2nd Level character who is trained in Diplomacy could, instead of taking a class-based Utility Power, take the 2nd Level Diplomacy Skill Power, which allows you to increase the hit points your allies recover during a short rest. [...]