I was reading through the Skills rules and they said the skill has an augmented max of 1.5 that the skill bonuses can't exceed. This confused me because some things obviously exceed this limit, like Olfactory Booster, while others seem to obey it, like vision enhancement. How do I tell which ones obey this limit and which don't?

Only thinks that count against augmented skill cap are those that directly raise the skill in question:
Adept power improved ability
Reflex recorders
Few qualities in Runners Companion

Everythink else is a dicepool modifier and thus isn't affected by that cap.

It makes you wonder why they bothered with the augmented cap, when it's barely used. They might as well have just written the rule into the Adept power only.

It helps to realize that bonuses to skills come in two main varieties:

Skill boosts, and bonus dice.

Skill boosts actually raise the skill rating. There are very few of these, actually. These are subject to the 1.5 modified rating limit. This is stuff like the Adept Power "Increased Ability".

Most other skill "adjustments" are Dice Pool Modifiers and actually just add bonus dice to the roll. These are not considered part of the skill rating and have no limit, - unless the GM is also using the optional Dice Caps rule, which limits the total dice rolled in a given test to either double the natural attribute + skill rating, or 20, whichever is higher.

Both Olfactory Booster and Vision Enhancement are Dice Pool Modifiers, by the way, not Skill modifiers.


-k

And also the Dodge bonus on Move-By-Wire.

But that's about the long and short of it.

Especially since the limit is stated there as well.

Bye
Thanee

My guess is just to maintain symmetry with the attribute augmentation cap, with the idea that the same level of relative coolness should be represented by the same number, whether skill or attribute. For example, a 3 is considered "average" (attribute) or "competent" (skill), whereas a 6 is considered unaugmented human max in either.

As others have said, most of the skill augmentations are actually dice pool modifiers. Here I think the emphasis is on having the right tool for the right job (getting a DP bonus to a particular skill under particular circumstances) versus overall augmentation (as is the case with most attribute-modifying things).