I've got a question about how Dodge Mastery "overrides the benefits of Melee Mastery." What does that mean exactly? If I master both, does that mean that I lose my melee mastery and can critically fail with weapons again even though I'm technically a master?

I'm interested in creating a build around the Filament Sword so I can't afford lose the benefits of melee mastery, and I will just stick with expert dodge if this is the case.

Another thought occurred to me in my wizened old age that I never thought about 18 years ago when I first played the game, and that is.... do NPC's use the same combat mechanics as player characters? That would make a lot more sense that if a Dodge Master NPC critically succeeds against me which causes a 100% critical failure chance for me, but I have a skill that prevents me from critically failing, one of the skills needs to take precedence over the other, and it appears that Dodge Mastery overrides Melee Mastery, but only in the instance where my opponent is a) a dodge master and b) critically succeeds in dodging my attack......... I'm hoping this is the case so I can go ahead and use my filament build with dual mastery!

Thanks for the answer! I'm relieved to hear that. I haven't gotten that far on this particular build, but I have had a backstab master running around with a 100% Arcane Greatsword before, and let's just say that is patently unfair :)