Lately, I've been debating with a handful of people whether
level has anything to do with meleeing a NPC.

The arguement I've seen is does a L39 warrior (with maxxed
skills) have the same melee potential as a L50 warrior.

(fill in warrior with bard in our case, I just picked a tank)

Casters most definitely have level limits on casting spells
at higher level mobs. 6 levels or so is the average, despite
what Gordon may have posted on the websites contradicting it.
I know for a fact, my L17 druid cannot cast on something that
cons white to a L24 no matter how hard I try. If that holds
true from a L39 casting on a L50, I dunno. The casters here
with characters that high will have to answer that. My guess
is they will be met with steady resists.

So back to melee players. Since I've been helping a few of
my friends out with melee characters, I've noticed an interesting
trend. If I bring a aviak darter (L17ish) to a L17 warrior he
has no problem hitting it, if I bring a L25ish archer to him he
struggles with misses, lower dmg, more mob ripostes/dodges. This
leads me to believe that level is playing a factor on hits and
damage.

The discussion then becomes is a L39 tank producing the same
damage output as a L50 tank with the same weapons? After the
skills are maxxed is level nothing more than a little more hp
and such?

All the tests I've run and experimented with were on lower level
characters, but I'm curious if the trend holds true to higher
levels.

A skeleton attacking my L8 cleric, will hit consistantly and
the damage will be considerate. A skeleton attacking my L50
bard will miss me 90% of the time, or I will dodge, or it will
hit for 1 or 2 dmg. This leads me to believe that level is
definitely playing a role in hitting and damage capabilities.

What do you all think?

Harmonic.