I was really disappointed in my Ninja as well. I played wizardry 1 when it first came out......and I can tell you, my ninja was a killing machine.

In 8, I thought I would give up a thief and have a Ninja instead.....after about 13 levels and a 75 crit hit skill level, I hardly ever get crit hits.....I think there is something buggy in the code. Now I have no standard crit hit chars in my party (Ninja, Samur, Monk) just the rogue and ranger.

Power hits from the ninja depend on more than just the crit skill. How good is close combat? How high are the senses? Senses is (are?) very important for martial arts.

<center>Nightowl2</center>

Critical hits also seem to depend on monster level. You will find that you see more criticals against lower level monsters than against higher level monsters. In general it seems to take all of the critcal killing classes quite a while for their criticals to really shine through. At higher levels (like 16-17+)where you get a lot of attacks/round, your stats are nice and high, and your critical skill is high, I think you will be quite happy with the frequency of criticals.

Yes instalkill take a long time to build up. If the monster is 5 levels or so below you you will make an instakill in nearly each battle (unless you hit harder then the HP of the monster).

As for high level monsters it's nearly impossible. If the monster is 10 levels higher just forget it. 5 levels or less difference may result in an instakill.