Could you use a second float to try to simulate a double? Use one like a numerator and the second like a denominator?
Of course, someone with access to the sourcecodes could do that. But then it would be easier to simply use a double. Mantissa size is not really the problem here, though.
Usually such low numbers are pointless, and the above example is one of those cases. When you increase damage by 0.5% per skill point, you need to do 200 base damage to have a
measurable increase per skill point, but it won't be
noticeable, so you could just as well simply add 5% per 10 skill points.