Skills - maybe this game isn't what I'm looking for

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by maximara

If Task Difficulty Modifiers were being applied it wouldn't be that much of an issue but the problem is that is kind of squirreled away in the Basic Set.

IMHO it is too many GMs not using that section (it really should have been a quick reference table) that causes people to think they must have insanely high skills.

From Skills on the GURPS wiki:
Extremely High Skill Not Needed

At first glance a mythological hero able to skewer foes while fighting from his back, with the wrong hand, while dealing with poor lighting, and injuries would seem to require a 40+ skill but there is a saner (and cheaper) way to do this.

The warrior should be a master (level 20) in their base weapon skill, have the Blind Fighting skill (which negates darkness penalties), High Pain Threshold, and the techniques Ground Fighting, Hit Location and Off-Hand Training (removing penalties for position, hit location and off-handedness respectively).

"The essential point here is that highly-skilled character concepts can be realized in GURPS through the artful use of reasonable skill levels that do not break the system." - Compendium II p. 125

Not sure how good an example that is, though. Weapon skill 40+ doesn't necessarily break the system, and it might be what you actually want to represent some ridiculously capable characters.

Ludicrous combat skill levels let you do ludicrous things, but that's only a problem if doing ludicrous things isn't the intended outcome.

The Princess Bride "I am not left handed" and "My name is Inigo Montoya" scenes would lose their point if, respectively, the characters are effectively ambidextrous and entirely unhindered by wounds.

(There might be skills where over-the-top levels do strain or break the system, but Melee Weapon doesn't seem to be one of them. And in 4th edition they don't break the pricing system either - IIRC they might have in earlier editions?)