Not many rolls in old school D&D improve aside from Attacks and Saving Throws. Those that do improve tend to just improve - with few, or no difficulty modifiers. Saving Throws, for example, usually range from around 17 to 4 (4 being better), and the worst difficulty modifier I can think of is -4. That's 13 points of difference, -4, comes to a 9 point difference. Thief skills, as another example, usually only improve, and if there are modifiers they are situational, not scaling in difficulty.
The d20 system on the other hand has scaling "difficulty class", that increases alongside character skill bonuses. In old school D&D, instead of rolls getting harder to pass, it's the consequences that increase. Instead of monsters that are harder to sneak by, the monsters become scarier to sneak pass. You have a better chance of succeeding, but the stakes are higher.
For example a higher level thief trying to sneak past a dragon, has a decent chance of succeeding, and sneaking off with treasure. However, if the thief fails his "move silently" roll, he has a dragon to contend with. The thief has improved his skill, and he doesn't get an arbitrary penalty to keep the chances the same as if he was a low level thief; the dragon doesn't have some increased chance of spotting him. Instead, if he fails his roll, the dragon can breath fire and eat him, unlike some low level goblins.
I feel like this adds a real dynamic to the game, and makes game play, experience, and improvement meaningful. Just some quick musing really.
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