> are you suggesting casting HEALTH on the first round? That sounds hopelessly inefficient.

Not if, as you say, you have spell points to spare, and you're up against Murkon, and a paralysis in the first round means your top assassin can't touch him for the rest of the combat. A casting of HEALTH and ARMOR secure the positions of your melee fighters, and you're good to go from there.

> Also, I don't see how one can avoid being paralyzed in an ambush...

That's true, you can't. However, Murkon will never ambush you.

> How much more chance do Assassins really have of striking critical hits? How does it vary with level, and is there a max?

It varies with level. Assassins crit hit if a random number from 0-59 is < min(level,50). In other words, at level 50 and beyond, assassins crit hit five out of six times, not counting the possibility of the *weapon* crit hitting. If a crit hit doesn't happen, there's still a chance of paralysis happening. The exception is when you're fighting monsters with paralysis immunity. Those can't be paralyzed or critically hit at all.