Of course it is skilled based.
But i think i don\'t like your system. Why?
For Alchemy/ Herborism/ Crafting and others skills like that, it makes little sense to increase the exp gained when you are near a monster (you may even have a malus for stupidity

).
For the combat-based skills, it is obvious that you will gain only exp when you are fighting something (or maybe by training, in this case i agree that less exps will be gained)
In general i don\'t like the fact that fighting monsters must be a requirement to gain exp. For example, a rogue should gain exp when he avoids fights and not for fighting. But that doesn\'t mean players will avoid dangerous places.
If you want to explore the secret level of the ultimate doom castle, it is more beacuse you know that the mega-sword of the power of the god is here than because you want to fight huge monsters