Absurdly high skill levels

[Bruno]

The open-ended nature of some penalties and the contest-based uses of others means that you basically can't say when Absurdly High Skill Levels max out the benefit to be gotten.

Melee and ranged weapon skills are the extreme example, but I think it applies to a lesser extent with some other skills.

It seems intuitively impossible that anyone could ever need a Rapier skill of 100. Say you're in the almost-pitch-dark (-9), Extremely heavily encumbered (-4) because you're carrying your unconscious companion, on a rain-swept (slippery, -2) steeply angled (-2) poorly maintained slate roof (-2 for being uneven and full of holes) and you're acutely afraid of heights (Phobia, -4). You're doing a rapid strike (-6, not a Weapon Master) with your Rapier in your off hand (-4, you didn't take Offhand Weapon Training or Ambidexterity), to the chinks in your opponents eye armor (which you can barely see in the dark, -10).

Oh, and you're downslope from your enemy on the roof, giving effectively 2 feet of vertical distance (-2 to hit the head) and he stabbed you last combat round and you have Low Pain Threshold (-8 for shock).

That's only -53 to skill, so you "only" need a skill of 69 to have an effective skill of 16 and maximum possible hit and crit chances, right?

If your opponent has a skill of 70 with his rapier, his base Parry score is 39 (assume he has Combat Reflexes). He's above you (+1) on a rain-swept (slippery, -1 - defense penalties are halved for bad footing) steeply angled (-1) poorly maintained slate roof (-1). He's using his rapier in his good hand, is NOT encumbered, is not in pain, and not afraid of heights. And he retreats, (+3 because he's using a rapier). He gets no penalty for bad lighting, apparently. Effective Parry score of 40, or nigh-unhittable unless you crit - and you only have a 9.3% chance of critting.

You'd need to stack on 30 levels of Deceptive Attack (-60!! to hit) on both Rapid Strikes just to knock his Parry down to 10. Meaning that to flounce confidently through this situation, our beleaguered PC needs a skill of higher than 129, just to soak up the penalties and swing the odds in his favor.

Basically, any ridiculous level of skill a player can get, an NPC can get or exceed better. Any place where skills are contested or placed in opposition to each other, there is no "maxing out".