backstab a bit of flavor beyond "big damage hit". Basically you have just as much chance of doing extra damage on your backstab (or adding some sort of maledict or whatever) as you do of a "critical failure" like the one you posted. Or a better chance of critical success and worse of critical failure. I don't remember exactly how Valg specced it up when he did it.

I loved/hated it with Faolai. Loved it when that extra bit of damage on a lucky hit was the key factor in a foe dying. Hated it when I completely missed some guy who was toast if I had hit him (only remember it happening this way like...once though).

Any idea what other skills have the same type of backfire on user?

All I could come up with was vault and poison grenades

Dagger spec misses, conjurer scrying, making food or water underwater, iceball and earthquake hitting the caster, and aristaeia making you immobile during combat.

Aristaeia always does that. Food and drink underwater always behave the same way. Conjie scrying is, just about, a backfire.

Iceball and earthquake won't hit the caster except in certain conditions (indoors, for example).

This seemed exceedingly rare the last time I played a thief. Did Valg tweak it since then? I can recall it failing in PK maybe...once...over a character's entire life.

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nt