I kinda have a problkem right now with arcanum. I tried 5 or 6 times now to create a new character, dwarf or half-ork, all with other background and stats - and all with the same problem: They make a "cirtical mistake" in every damn fight! even if I just fight the lousy wolven at the crash site. What the *peep* is up? that never happened to me before, when I tried to make a new char :/
First off, standard question: Are you patched? If so, there are a number of causes I can think of, straight of the bat: 1) You haven't invested any points in your melee skill, which easily leads to such results. 2) You have choosen the "Nietchze Poster Child" background, which increases the risk of receiving critical failures. 3) You're using an inappropriate weapon (like a tech character wielding magickal equipment etc). Example, dwarf with "child of a hero" background. 4) Some weapons increase the rate of critical failures without being of an opposite aptitude, ie the filament sword. You couldn't possibly be having that specific weapon though... 5) Murphy. You're just a subject to bad luck. However, it seems strange that you should experience critical misses in every combat situation. Other than that, this could be some obscure bug I've never heard of - I tried a search, but it didn't reveal anything useful. Oh, hope Shadyman sees this...
Or you are trying to kill with backstab while having no melee skill. Try TBC. Highlight a wolf. Read your TH% (to hit) in the message box. How low is it? The lower your TH, the greater the odds of a crit miss. The higher your TH, the greater the odds of a crit hit. Other than that, what Dark Elf said. Except for #3. Only a mage using tech weapons gets an incerased chance of crit failure. The Child of a Hero Dwarf would only miss out on the +10 TH from that sword. For melee PCs I usualy bring DX to 9, if needed, & put two points in melee. I have started a few non melee fighters with DX 6 & 1 1/4 point in melee & gotten through the crash site just fine.
oh yeah forgot this - ye sI am patched, and no I have no mods (before somebdoy asks this). lets see for the other questions. 1) You haven't invested any points in your melee skill, which easily leads to such results. always one point in this at least. but I also played charas with 0 points on it from the beginning who didnt miss in every battle :/ 2) You have choosen the "Nietchze Poster Child" background, which increases the risk of receiving critical failures. Nope. In none of my charas 3) You're using an inappropriate weapon (like a tech character wielding magickal equipment etc). Example, dwarf with "child of a hero" background. It was always at the beginning of the game already. Its not much fun going on to play this way. I mostly bought the rapier, one time the stick, and one time the axe - always the same problem. 4) Some weapons increase the rate of critical failures without being of an opposite aptitude, ie the filament sword. You couldn't possibly be having that specific weapon though... Nope. not that early in the game. 5) Murphy. You're just a subject to bad luck. However, it seems strange that you should experience critical misses in every combat situation. yeah, that kinda is against the laws of posisbility, I guess... "It might be because you're using a weapon that requires higher Strength than you have." As said: Stick, Rapier or axe with high-strength dwarf. so - nope. "Or you are trying to kill with backstab while having no melee skill. " maybe accidently, although I wouldnt know how... what button is backstabbing again? "Try TBC. Highlight a wolf. Read your TH% (to hit) in the message box. How low is it? The lower your TH, the greater the odds of a crit miss. The higher your TH, the greater the odds of a crit hit. " Okay, Ill try, thanks.
