It seems to me that a party of Rank 6+ characters built appropriately would be quite powerful. Has anyone achieved this plateau, and if so, how is the campaign's power level? Dragons and daemons anyone?

Vladimyr said:

Once they get 3 in their main skill and 5-6 in their main characteristics, they won't increase in "power" much. This will happend around rank 3-4. They can always get more wounds of course, but around rank 3 characters who have focused on combat will have reached their full potential (except for wounds).

Sorry, I only have the basic rulebook here. Does a character max out at 3 expertise?

I was under the impression that at Rank 6, a fighter-type character could feasibly have 20+ Wounds, Soak 13+, Strength 6 (+10 Fortune dice), 6 expertise and then specialization on top.

A character with a boatload of advancements could get some of the way toward your assumption (but they do max out at 3 Expertise dice by Rank 3 in any one skill). The bloat of fortune dice is not something directly addressed in the rules, but I personally would pull the e-brake far far short of 10 fortune dice on a characteristic (I'm currently allowing 1 max but I'm a jerk and a sadist). Getting to a soak of 13 might be conditionally possible (especially if they have some super rare rune-item or the like). Strength 6 is doable. 20 Wounds is a definite possibility.

Impressive stats, bulwarks, preparations, magic artefacts, a crown, etc are cool as heck and are the rewards due a character that manages to outwit Warhammer long enough to remain sane, un-mutated and survive to Rank 6. But it doesn't have that same transition to god-hood that other games experience (I'm mainly thinking of D&D here, but I'm not trying to burn high fantasy high power roleplaying...it has its time and place at my table). However, as has been mentioned previously, any successful attack results in at least 1 wound (get plenty of sleep before reading that rule section lol...it's a confusing doozy and has spawned a lot of discussion). So even if a character is dishing out sick amounts of damage they are still likely getting whittled down by hits (a hail of mundane city-watch crossbow bolts on a Rank 6 character sucks really bad and should generally be avoided...which is good advice for a Rank 1 character as well). You also have the exertion mechanics (stress & fatigue) which are not to be ignored entirely. Recovering from wounds can really put a hitch in your git-along too. I have a character that has been playing the "tough cigar chewing merc" and he's carrying around a couple of critical wounds that he jus can't seem to shake (though they are still Rank 1 so...that gets a bit less persistent but no less a concern for a Rank 6'er that exceeds their wound threshold and picks up a crit through that big pile of armour). There are functional things that can bring a character low as well. Lack of food and water doesn't really spare that guy in glowing full plate riding a griffon any more than the dude wearing sweat-pants and weilding a pitch fork. Then there are spells/effects/etc that bypass all those neat bulwarks of defense and just start to mess up a character. You don't get to swim in armour in Warhammer (at least when I'm runnin' it) so getting smacked off a bridge makes that 13 soak seem much much less awesome. Being lit on fire is a terrible way to die, and Rank 6 character covered in pitch is going to be in danger when the villagers/cultists/goblins start throwing firebrands at him from.

All the ways to die and power vs challenge strategy doesn't "solve" the issue of heroic monster stat characters entirely. And as Emerikol said in this thread's clone on the main page. Retiring characters is okay. Riding off into the sunset to become a major world NPC is one heck of a payout in Warhammer in my opinion (for the record everyone should adopt my opinion as it would make my day-to-day life easier).

TLDR; When in doubt drop a big heavy boulder on a player character's head if they refuse to retire in stylish fame (or destitute infamy).