I have played WIzardry for years, and, one thing I just don't get. That is the dagger of speed. It's worth a lot of gold, so, that might lead me to believe I want it. However, it adds 3 to my AC, and is -1 to attack. Hardly a good thing. I can see it also gives +7 speed, but not sure what this really refers to. i.e., do I have to equip it? If so, and I give it to a Mage, does that mean the mage will cast spells sooner, or, is this speed just for hand to hand combat?

Using the floppy version of WIz1.

So, I guess it could be useful as a weapon for a Mage, though, one never wants their mage to fight anyway. The other thought I had was maybe with a lower level Ninja, each of those 7 attacks has a chance perhaps of an instant kill? But I tried it 5 or 6 battles and never got a single kill (L14). The dagger has such a high gold value, puzzling to me to see much use for it unless indeed it might work for a lower level Ninja to increase odds of kill. I've seen the Ninja get kills with a larger weapon.

Ninjas too, never used them before, trying to figure out on the Dos version, how they even work. There is no hide feature. I tried the no weapon and armor thing, seemed pretty worthless.

With respect to Ninjas, they're like Fighters with some Thief characteristics. Specifically:

* They get attacks like a Fighter (one every 5 levels), but they get an extra attack on top of that. This means that a Ninja will reach 10 attacks (the maximum) at level 40, and will start out with 2 attacks.

* They get the ability to instant kill. This is the same effect that certain weapons have, and the two effects do not stack.

* A Ninja with nothing equipped gets an AC of 8 minus 1 per 3 levels. This means that a level 12 Ninja without equipment has 4 AC, and at level 30 she will have -2 AC. Also, Ninjas without weapons get slightly better damage (I think it's something like 1-4 instead of 1-2). (Yes, this does mean that, to get a decent AC without armor, your Ninja needs to be a really high level.)

* Ninjas can inspect chests better than most classes, but not as good as Thieves. A Thief's success rate is Agility * 6 (capped at 95%), while a Ninja's is only Agility * 4 (which, in Sir-Tech Wizardry 1-5, can't exceed 72% unless an underflow glitch has occurred). Therefore, if you are using a Ninja instead of a Thief, it is a good idea to use the CALFO spell on every chest you encounter.

* Ninjas are as good at disarming chests as Thieves of the same level; both classes are as good as a character of another class who is 50 levels higher. (One observation; at really high levels, you can do without a Thief or Ninja, as other classes eventually get a decent chance of disarming traps.)

In the DOS version, which didn't come with a manual sadly, there is no hide command. In all the manuals I can find online, there is supposed to be a hide command during combat. Maybe the DOS version was different.

I presume the instant kill can happen *with* weapons and not due to a specific weapon?

Not sure of the use of no armor!

Anyone know of a source that can detail the differences between versions?

Wizardry 1-4 did not have a hide command; that wasn't introduced until Wizardry 5. Some of the Japanese Wizardry remakes added this feature to 1-3, however.

Any weapon can score a critical hit if used by a Ninja, provided the Ninja isn't cursed. However, the chance of scoring a critical hit is not dependent on the number of hits scored by an attack (as long as you hit at least once). In Wizardry 1, it works as follows (when it is a party member doing the attack):
* There is a 2% chance per level, capped at 50%, of a possible critical.
* The enemy has a chance of avoiding the critical. This chance is about (10 + level) / 35 (based off the enemy's level, not yours). Keep in mind that the enemy's level isn't necessarily correlated with the enemy's power; Poison Giants are level 1, while Wizardry 2's fuzzballs are level 100 (but it doesn't matter if you could critical them, since they have 1 HP).

Non-Ninjas can critical hit, but only if using a weapon that specifically allows it (and not cursed); the mechanics are the same.