maxing the chance for a critcal kill

[Alenkii Cvetocek]

Hello,

I am looking to start a new, more challenging party (having found that a ranged party with fighter/ranger/ranger/bard/gadgeteer/bishop just breezes through the game). So I want to make a critical killer-heavy party (maybe ninja/samarai/monk/ranger/rouge/bishop). I have been browsing the boards and websites, but haven't found much hard information about what is most important for maximizing critical kills. Another thing that I haven't seen is people maximizing speed and senses first for all their critical killers. Has anyone tried this? Does anybody know how important these attributes are compared to skill levels? Many people compain about how critical kill sucks, but I speculate that perhaps they have crappy senses and that it presents a problem. My rangers critical often, even with average ammo.

Anyway, I am eager to hear opinions.

Thanks,

Alenkii Cvetocek

[Niob]

Well, I have a felpurr-samurai and he does a lot more criticals than my felpurr-ninja, although the ninja has more points on Critical hit and its his primary skill. The only good ninja is a fairy. I use Fang and enchanted wakizashi, senses are very important for critical hits. And I suppose, DEX and SPD are also helpful.
I guess, if the Samurai has all his 10-12 strikes, he hits at least one critical every round. The Samurai has more kills than a my Lord, dual wielding Bloodlust and Canezou Dagger, but not as much as a fighter with lightsword.
A gadgeteer with his omnigun also shoots many instant kills.

[armakh]

The info says that speed and senses are the controlling aspects of crits, and I'm beginning to think that it's more senses than anything. With my sam, I built up speed and dex first, and am now working on str and senses, and he is critting a LOT more. Of course, the jump in crits and building up senses also coincides with the time that I got Fang, with that 10% crit chance.

But the reason that I'm thinking so much depends on senses is with my ranger and gadgeteer. Ranger maxxed senses and dex first, and gadgie almost has senses up now, and they both still crit a lot more than my sam does.

My next game is going to include a ninja, and I'm going to test the theory and max senses and speed first to work on that crit thing.

[GenXCub]

The one thing I can see that you may consider a drawback is that you'll have 4 classes that do "up close" combat. You'll have to do the whole "put no one in the front rank" strategy. Either that, or have your Monk use Spears instead of Martial Arts.

[otter]

I like to build my parties based on the weapons available, and to the monk i say, use staves, not polearms. The 2-handed ones are extended-range, and you build the staff skill. The best monk weapon is a staff, and it's one of the things that's always where it is. You can also get a rather good staff fairly early in the game from one of the merchants. Rearranging your formation is no big deal. You can even make your party six wide: 2 in each flank, 2 in the middle. (I ran 6 ninjas once)