Hello!

I wanted to suggest maybe making a distinction between fighters that take advantage of strength and those that use their agility to fight instead of having to rely purely on strength to make a good fighter, which is status quo currently.

So... perhaps make the combat skill use the higher of the two stats, either dex or str.

Then
blugeon uses str
pierce uses dex
slash uses an average of the two or maybe a formula that works like (2x + 1y)/3 where x is the higher skill and y is the lower.

Not sure how this would affect the game as I've really not gotten past level 11, but this might help the more dex reliant fighting classes along. (ranger/thief)

Pierce is actually dependent on dexterity and strength. I dont believe it matters if you have (71 str and 55dex) or (71dex and 55 str), I believe your effective quality will be the same with either of these two. You can verify this by typing (prereq pierce), it shows you the stats that affect that skill/spell.. in this case dexterity and strength. That being said, you can certainly have good pierce damage with high dexterity, but you will still want a combination of the two! Also, pierce penetrates through Armour better than slash and bludgeon do (one of the reasons pierce weapons are lower damage in general).

That, being said.. It is more difficult to level a thief and ranger, but mostly because you can't really compare to a warriors headbutt. Being able to not take damage is pretty powerful for leveling. But when it comes time to quests, other skills can be more beneficial (like slit throat, choker hold, hunt, smokescreen, evade ). Also, a ranger can hide behind rows and shoot arrows w/o entering combat themselves. You could use animates or hide behind a group to level up. But, if you're having trouble leveling perhaps try something like a dwarf war/war (easiest to level), troll works great too, but a lot of mobs will aggro trolls. Level the dwarf up to lvl 50 (or higher) and Rebirth into a ranger or something. Just know that for lower levels (under level 60'ish) warrior/warrior levels fastest/easiest overall.