I am not all that much of a number cruncher but 2 things strike me about pugil (no pun intended): the actual strike doesn't match the helpfile description which speaks of two quick strikes with each end of the staff; and the success rate of pugil is appallingly low compared to other melee skills. For example, as a ranger with 97% pugil and fighting things that were mostly perfect matches I found the following Miss:hit numbers for several fights (5:1)(4:2)(7:0)(0:2)(4:1)(2:2)(4:3)(0:2)(4:2)(5:1)(3:2)(1:4)(1:3)(3:1)(11:2)(0:2)


The first number (usually larger) is the miss number. I can understand not wanting it to knock the crap out of everthing, every time, but this still seems fairly low; missing approximately 2/3's of the time.

Just a bad run of luck on my part? Or is this the usual experience for similar skills of this type?

Gear for a 35 hitroll or so and run the same hit/miss numbers.

If you see the 'hitting' echo but then miss with pugil, the problem was that you couldn't hit their armor class, essentially. My mages in particular have chronic problems with this that I generally don't care enough to gear to remedy.

that's part of why I asked...and I was hitting things roughly my level, that were only normally ac'd (slaves on Crystal Island)