[ericthered]

The rule of 16 only applies to resisted abilities, and limits the attacking score in the quick contest to the higher of 16 or the defender's score.

Skill 24 on a melee weapon is terrifiyingly effective in gurps. Against tough foes you can hit chinks 90% of the time and eyes 75%. You can stick a -5 penalty to defenses on foes who everyone else struggles to hit. Against mooks you can (with the right options turned on) attack twice in a turn, and more if you have weapon master. And you have parry 16 (you have combat reflexes, right?), which lets you not instantly get hit by other folks with skill 24.

Supporting your weapon with ST to do damage and weapon master to is important, and I usually see players grab those before going past skill 20. I've had a couple of players who got melee skill levels in that range: two of the three times it happened we were playing monster hunters. The Warriors utterly wasted anything in the books that wasn't a dedicated boss monster, and showed up a few of those as well. These were 500 point characters, but the skill was the flashiest and most overwhelming part of the build.