Rank these characters by skill

[B]

Goku
Piccolo
Tenshinhan
Krillin
Master Roshi
Vegeta
Yamcha
Chiaotzu
Yajirobe
Gohan
Future Trunks
Chi-Chi
Videl
Trunks
Mr. Satan
Goten

Most difficult placements: Kuririn and Kame Sennin you could probably swap; Chaozu is hard. I don't think you can completely disregard power from the table. Chaozu spends all his time training with Ten, but if that was worth anything, you'd think he'd be stronger? I don't know?

(Also, Tenshinhan is not in the OP's first list of characters to rank, but then you include him in your own personal ranked list)

[DBZAOTA482]

If he was significantly below Krillin then it'd be irrelevant but the fact he was able to evade Krillin's attacks with success shows otherwise. He barely even tries to land a hit so it doesn't really say much regarding his physical abilities.

His lack of basic math skills is relevant because it makes him easy to see through as demonstrated during his fight with Krillin.

Jackie Chun had not even saw Goku and Tenshinhan fight even close to the true extent of their abilities plus none of them weren't close to their peak in both skill and strength. This also doesn't mean much considering Tenshinhan had no interest in fighting Krillin with Goku and Jackie Chun (he actually expected to win 1st place and Chiaotzu 2nd implying he can easily counter the telekinesis).

Her fight with a much more skilled Goku, serious or not, offered more to the table regarding her physical abilities than anything Chiaotzu ever did against Krillin. She managed to put him on the defensive matching him movement-for-movement... she even matched his casual 50+ meter jump and fought him in mid-air (which Nam struggled to do with Goku in the 21st Budokai). It was also possible she was holding back given her emotional state (she was having conversation with him that was completely unrelated to the fight). Even as a child she has a more impressive skill feat than anything skill feat Chiaotzu has ever shown when she threw a boomerang blade with enough force to decapitate a T-rex and return back to her with success despite being scared... then catching it before it hit the ground.

The fact Yajirobe can go toe-to-toe with someone on his level (and it's Goku no less) shows he's got the melee skills down pretty damn well which is more than I could say for Chiaotzu who can hardly fight hand-to-hand.

You're really grasping at straws to make Chi-Chi something she's not.

Chiaotzu fought perfectly fine hand to hand with Kuririn. Kuririn had the upper hand but it's not like Chiaotzu was blown out of the water. He went to the air and used his techniques to get an advantage. Something Chi-Chi can't do.
Chiatozu received training from Tsuru-sennin, Karin and Kami! He had to catch Karin's water, did all the training Goku probably received from Mr.Popo. He's shown fighting with Yamcha in the training. How can you say he can hardly fight hand-to-hand?!

The master line, how can you distort it like that? He simply puts him in the same category as the other fighters. Doesn't matter if Goku and Tenshinhan still hadn't displayed all they could do. Goku also hadn't displayed anything special in the fight with Chi-Chi, can I also diminish the argument by saying this?

Chi-Chi is nothing more than a Super Human. She doesn't have anything worthwhile to put her above Chiaotzu.

Put Yajirobe fighting Chiaotzu, both with the same power. Who wins? Chiaotzu because he can fly, use Ki attacks and telekinesis. Or even self-destruct to get at least a tie. He wins because he has more skill. Those melee skills are just a small part of the whole cake.

Chiaotzu was demonstratively not particularly skilled in terms of melee... hence is why he relies on those strange abilities, why he never fought back against Krillin's flurry of attacks, why he couldn't read Krillin's zanzoken, and struggled to tell his left from his rights even after Tien told him to turn left (because that's where Krillin zanzoken'd). He was comparable to Krillin but he was also slow-witted and easily deceived by mind games.

Goku jumped super high (seemingly random) across the ring in order to narrowly avoid an attack and she was able to follow where he was gonna land based on his movement alone before landing. Not to mention she matched his casual 50+ meter jump straight into the air in order to avoid an elbow from her mid-action and still fought at great speed against him while hovering in mid-air without the need of bukujutsu (she even had a stance). That shows an extreme amount of skill and dexterity... especially considering her emotional state while doing this (she actually almost surprised Goku with some of her attacks).

Okay, maybe it was unnecessary to bring that up but that doesn't change the fact Chi-Chi left much more of an impression on Roshi than Chiaotzu did.

Ki is important but it's not everything and Chiaotzu's techniques can be countered easily by playing mind games with him plus Yajirobe could possibly just cut his ass up or jump super high at him.

Actually... thinking on it I'll be generous and might put mime boy higher than the bean daddy.

[JeevanBuu]

My list:

Goku
Vegeta
Piccolo
Gohan
Future Trunks
Tien
Master Roshi
Krillin
Trunks
Goten
Yamcha
Chiaotzu
Yajirobe
Chi Chi
Videl
Mr Satan

Goku beat Vegeta to number one because he's more skilled when fighting. Sometimes his way is not the best but it always works. Except resurrection F. But other than that his skill in fighting and fighting tactics beats Vegeta.

[In Brightest Day]

A pretty accurate list, in my opinion:

1. Son Goku
2. Piccolo
3. Vegeta
4. Roshi
5. Krillin
6. Tenshinhan
7. Yamcha
8. Future Trunks
9. Chaozu
10. Son Gohan
11. Chi Chi
12. Yajirobe
13. Videl
14. Trunks
15. Son Goten
16. Mr. Satan.

Vegeta's placement was tough, not because I dislike the character but more due to Goku, Piccolo & the human fighters (4 through to 7) probably being more skilled from a traditional standpoint. With that said, Vegeta is durable as hell, tenacious and clearly a combat genius.

Gohan just isn't a fighter at heart at the end of the day. Those below him are there mostly due to a lack of Ki control, while Trunks and Goten are simply that incompetent.

[apex_pretador]

First of all, we should know what is skill in DBZ.
IMO:
Skill is the ability to fight stronger opponents without getting destroyed, and ability to destroy weaker opponents with ease.

In that case, we have:


A. Vegeta - He fights KK x3 Goku evenly, was fighting recoome, troubles first form freeza, fighting #18 he gets a good fight before he gets tired.
He destroyes cui, dodoria and was even destroying Zarbon before transformation, and 1-shots #19 post absorption.

B. Goku - Fights untrained yajirobe evenly, nearly dies fighting weaker young daimao, fights weaker nappa thinking it'll take forever, fights evenly with weaker vegeta (KK x3), couldn't destroy MUCH weaker fat buu.

Troubles stronger roshi, MUCH stronger raditz, MUCH stronger ape vegeta, nearly kills MUCH MUCH stronger 50% freeza twice, troubles stronger cell, troubles stronger yakon in base.

C. Piccolo - Fights slightly stronger goku evenly - even dominating most part, kills MUCH stronger raditz, dominates slightly weaker cell, great fight with #17 despite obvious disadvantages, survives STANDING the assault of Cell Jrs, who were significantly stronger than him.

D. Krillin - Trouble stronger jackie chun, goku, piccolo etc in various fights, kills 3 saibamen with ease without huge power advantage with an attack which worried nappa, gives nappa trouble , survives massively stronger dodoria, cuts tail of 2nd form freeza.

Gets troubled by chiatzu and bacterian.

E. Roshi - Gets troubled by krillin, goku (both weaker) , troubles stronger tien, troubles much stronger daimao.

F. Yamcha - Gets killed by saibaman, gets destroyed by kami, gets leg broken by ten, gets arm broken by cell jr.