What are people's experiences with this skill? In all my games, it doesn't seem to do much. I had teams with a Samurai and a Monk, both of whom only auto-killed an enemy rarely. In my current game, I have a ninja, who hasn't auto-killed an enemy once, having reached Arnika.

It's very useful in Wiz 6. I just started Wiz 7 and I've crit-killed one or two enemies so far, so it obviously gets used. Haven't played Wiz 8 yet.

Someone posted that Critical Strike is apparently 1% per 20 points in the skill. Plus, the enemy has a chance of resisting it based on relative level, much like with instant death spells.

In other words, this spell is not that good early on, and later on is mostly useful against low level enemies with high HP (which the game *does* like to throw at you sometimes).

Edit: In Wizardry 8, has anybody ever had it work against undead? (I suspect undead might be immune to this.)

Wiz 8:

It's been my experience that Critical Strike only really works well if you've got a weapon that inherently has a kill chance on it. Using Fang, for instance, gives very different results on a samurai vs another melee class. Ninja and monk fists seem to be the worst offenders though, I never seem to kill anyone with those. For Rangers, Ranged Combat gives similar bonuses, and Eagle Eye seems to help as well (though it may just help with snipering them from half a mile away).

Undead are definitely not immune. I instant-kill the ghosts on Ascension Peak fairly regularly.


Wiz 6-7:

Kirijutsu is great. Every 5 points is 1% kill chance, and ninjas get an innate 5% kill chance as well. Combine those with a high-kill weapon like the Muramasa or Cane and you've got a whopping 35-40% kill chance! Enemies do get their Death resist, and based on evidence Lifeforce resist as well, so in practice it's not quite that high. But if they don't have a boss-level 125% resist (i.e. immunity) you get extremely frequent criticals.

I've tried giving Fang to my samurai that one time, but the damage felt too low compared to Bloodlust. An uncertain chance to score a crit didn't feel like it offset that. Ninja isn't too impressive a class without crits, though.

Crits are great, because they allow to quickly mow the hordes of hp-bloated and level-scaled trash mobs that game is constantly throwing at you. The overall DPS of criting samurai or ninja may in the end be lower than than DPS of perma breserking fighter, but having them in party speeds up terribly slow combat.

Personally I am not a fan. It is best when getting many (possibly low damage) hits in. So if you want to go for a crit build you'd go for Speed and Dexterity I guess, plus Senses. Strength, while really good, doesn't do anything for crits. Also the weapon choice matters of course. For more attacks you want dual weapons, possibly a Doublestrike Dagger or otherwise fast hitting weapons, as well as kill chance of course.

The Crit skill levels up fairly slowly and can't be powertrained. Like all skills it levels quicker the higher the relating attributes are. Ironically this leads to the Ranger having the highest crit chance for the greater part of the game. That's simply because he uses Ranged Combat to crit, which levels up a lot faster. He also has the potential to fire a lot of arrows per turn.
As far as the Ninja goes, who does have the highest maximum crit skill of course, I'd bet on the Throwing Ninja to crit most. With dual throwing weapons or even the simpler Doubleshot Sling. That's not counting the Fairy Ninja as it isn't the crit skill but the Cane that is decisive for him. Ranged tends to have more attacks generally, because it allows to always attack while melees occasionally lack an adjacent opponent and thus can't strike. Also the melee Ninja may need to retreat to the backline at times if taking too much damage.

I'd say crit shines most when fighting superior foes. Occasionally you get lucky. I am inclined to just count killed opponents as far as usual mobs are concerned and I share your sentiment: crit isn't that impressive (not with a standard, not crit specific build anyway). If it is level 20 Don Barlone against a way lower party (or something along those lines) a crit makes quite the difference however. I made a themed party that is determined to kill everything they meet, as soon as they meet it (the four riders). Not sure what I'd have done against Burz, had I not critted him. That's pretty unlikely so I'd say crit can decide about one or two really difficult fights per playthrough...

Not if the foe is significantly higher in level than you.

I would say that Critical Strike shines in the same situation that instant death spells are useful: when fighting low level enemies with high HP. This includes, for example, summoned elementals and lesser rapax.

Strangely enough debuffs occasionally work even against the highest resistances and a superior level. Pandora, my solo Mage, instakilled El Dorado really quickly with the Staff of Doom and even paralyzed Al Sedexus just as readily right after. Quite unexpectedly so, belying a level disadvantage and very good resistances. Although I had a more interesting strategy thought out it remains true that Pandora would not have stood the slightest chance against either of them in ordinary combat. That was a truly decisive kill effect. You may have noticed that I pointed out how rare this is, it supposedly happening "once or twice per playthrough". Still: those are the ONLY moments that have me think "Critical Strike can be awesome indeed". It is also why I never tried an Iron Man true solo (w/o RPCs): no matter what you do kill effects remain a threat that is not unlikely to end your game at some point. Personally I'd be happy to remove kill effects, "RNGs darling", from the game entirely tbh, if only for that Iron Man solo.
The low level opponents... that kind of stuff is still boring, if less so. Nothing could ever shine there. That's why I personally do not linger, hardly do side quests and usually end the game asap. There is no long term fun in playing an overpowered party imo, no matter whether you crit the enemy, cut 'em to pieces with a Light Sword or let Superman Elementals do your dirty work.
In case they aren't easy to defeat at all I got to say I'd never enter a fight against hordes of high HP enemies if I have to really *rely* on crit to beat them. Then again I never tried a crit build to begin with because crit never deemed me worth it. The only reason I mention crit builds is because the master did at some point, so I suppose it is an option.

Come to think of it, the few crits that did happen in my memory were against elementals, among others. So yeah. And I remember that every time I fought Brekkek with a ranger in my party, he critted the frog.

So, yeah, not as good as it sounds, all around. I'll have to rethink playing with a ninja in my crew.

Yes, but keep in mind that low level opponents can still do large amounts of physical damage.

Elementals are especially notable there; they can be summoned by higher level enemies, have a lot of hit points, and hit really hard, but their level and most of their resistances are low, making instant kills (both weapon and magic) particularly useful here.

Also, when it comes to multi-target instant death spells here, using them against groups of low level high HP enemies (like lesser Rapax) will greatly reduce the time you have to spend fighting them. That's why I really like the Quicksand spell.

(Against low level low HP enemies, the way to end the battle quickly is to spam multi-target attack spells.)

well for 6 and 7 its a must have for any class-changing parties, front line fighters with dual weapons attacking multiple times per hand plus base 20% critical per hit, yes please. Even the non front liners with bows/staffs still get much use out of it when you don't need to waste spells on trash mobs, or are low on spell points, your weapons still hit multiple times with crit chance. So if you do a lot of class change building, its a must have skill on everyone. Amazingly powerful in 6 and 7. They toned it down in 8 it was just too strong in 6 and 7, they learned something.

It is nice when it triggers but it is unreliable.If you are going to invest in it better be a Samurai with a ton of attacks and i would suggest that you use weapons with on-hit effects so that at least something triggers from your attacks.

I remember making a samurai fairy and using two fairy starting sticks to great effect but you'll need a second fairy in your party for a second stick early on.

2nd level of the mon-starting area or just pay for it during character building... I agree that a fairy samurai is fun to play