Yes but Ive done with many times with other characters and never had kill animations, even my master thief has never done it that well. So there is another factor involved other than just losing agro, or else we would get the animations much more often.

What triggers them? Why, it's attacks of course.

70 hours and not 1 kill animation.

I'm guessing, and maybe someone else here has already said this in a different way, that the system looks for attacks that a. will connect to the enemy, and b. are "overkill" damage-wise to determine if a finishing move is used.

Yes there is some other factor like your position and the target position, ie: No slicethroat in a stair if you are not at same height.

I believe that sometimes I have managed to first-person finishers when there are enemies still around...

No idea, but obviously it's calculated as you hit attack, it's just randomness. Still, i hate it when im considering taking a potion, then as i hit my inventory, drink it & go back.....wham! i'm treated to my character being a human kebab.

I noticed that I get a finishing move on a wolf almost every time I kill one with a power attack. It doesn't happen with more powerful creatures though, so perhaps they compare the amount of damage your killing blow caused with the creature's maximum health.

I don't mind finishing moves triggered by my character. I hate finishing moves triggered by an NPC/Enemy since more than once its happened when I know I have enough health left to tab out and gulp a health potion. Enemy finishing move begins and I'm locked out. Its maddening. In other Bethesda games I've won the battle with the tiniest sliver of health left (and it was very satisfying). If it were Skyrim I'd have been locked out of controlling my character to allow an enemy finishing move cinematic (and be dead).

What difficulty are you playing on?

Also, what weapons are you using?

Not critical I don't think, sneak critical it must do otherwise you wouldn't get sneak kill animations.

But I think my usual kill animations work when I'm in the power attack damage kill range.

I think it's kind of a roll of the dice thing? I do believe it's based on a certain % be it 20%-50%, but every time you or anyone else swings their weapon the programing kicks in and based on said % rolls the proverbial dice and abracadabra you either hit with a normal attack or it runs the instant kill animation. That being said I'm pretty sure the program takes into account you level,strength,and your overall hit damage and factors that in, soooo if your a high level and your hit damage for what ever weapon you use is pretty high the chances or % that you go into instant kill or normal attack goes up.I'm am currently Lv.81.5 my sword does 466 damage with 37frost and 37shock and plus 144 on-handed enchant between gauntlets,ring,necklace and it's still kind of 70/30 for me when i swing. As for not being able to get the instant kill animation while in combat with more than one person, I have in combat killed more than one person in one string of attacks with instant kills( three decapitations in a row) without breaking combat, and you can interrupt someone elses instant kill with a standing back stab.

for the player at least I have noticed getting finishing moves when attacking with the right hand (which may be dominant). It may only happen when you have stamina left, or a certain amount of stamina while finishing them with the right hand. There is a way to do it consistently, they did it in one of the trailers, we just need to figure out the requirements. I think im getting close.

It would be pretty cool if they had a short and quick cutscene (random and not all the time, of course) for the bow & arrow shot that makes a critical one-shot kill.

Cutscene - camera following the arrow with the intended target blurry in the distance, lenses focused on the arrow as you see its feathers vibrating by the speed it travels through the air like a sprinting horse, the target comes into focus along with the arrow and we see it go through the neck of the enemy who quickly drowns in his blood and passes out from lack of oxygen to the brain.

as an example.

It's not a chance thing, you will only get them when all other enemies are dead, on the last enemy in the vicinity.

From experience, it seems to trigger when your power attack damage would kill the enemy (even if you don't power attack).

Also sneak criticals mentioned above, which trigger the animation as well. The power attack thing above is only for when in combat I find.

That's what I think. Every time that I remember executing a finishing blow, I've heard that little sound effect that means a crit.


I know that's incorrect. I've performed finishes with other enemies still in combat.

Pretty much I assume the game calculates the damage at the beginning of the attack and if its enough to kill you, it triggers a killing blow animation. It doesn't seem to care if you could have easily dodged the attack. Especially rough for mages with low health, but can usually get out of the way easily.

Hail Sithis!!!!!

What I can't figure out is why no NPC has ever done a finishing move on my character in 75 hours. I hear about it happening to other players but it's never happened to me.

My character delivers finishers constantly. If I fight a group of three bandits and don't see a finishing move I'm surprised. I've gotten two finishers in a row, one after the other, several times. In an earlier thread someone theorized that finishers happen more often with 2-handed weapons. I don't know.

For what it's worth, my character is a 2-handed melee warrior. I have put all of my points into Health. I wonder if my character's large Heath pool has anything to do with why no one ever does a finisher on him?

I think it has to do with damage possible by the weapon in relation to the enemies health, not necessarily only critical hits. Because I just started a new Two Handed character and I get a LOT more finishers than my old dual wielding character.

I'm not saying that it's left entirely up to chance, but I don't think it's entirely based on damage.If that was the case then when you are a low level and facing a giant then said giant should kill you with instant kill every time but that's not the case, it's still sort of random. what I'm trying to say is that your level, strength,hit damage all factor in to the % of chance that you will do a crit. hit and that the crit.hit is viable to trigger a instant kill. there are all kinds of factors like line of sight that effect weather or not you will slit their throat or take them down with one arrow while sneaking. So I think the program takes into account your hit damage, level,the level of your opponent and even the type of weapon, calculates weather or not you can kill your opponent with one swing and rolls that dice on weather or not to give you the instant kill or just a normal attack, the higher you damage and level the better your chances are of the program running the instant kill.like I said before, I did notice a difference between when I was a low level and now as a high level.It does run the animation more for me now but not all the time, I will instant kill a spriggan turn to face her bear and only get the normal combat animation, which shows that it is sort of random, why would I instant kill a spriggan but not a bear that is a lower level the the spriggan.

I think it's every time someone in the world sneezes an finishing cutscene triggers

Plenty of people don't like the 2H'd insta-death when fighting a NPC.

I enjoy it, and it certainly makes me think twice about going toe to toe with someone wielding a weapon bigger than I am.

I've yet to have a finisher trigger fighting a NPC wielding a one-handed weapon, and I'd probably be in the same boat as everyone else if it did happen.

As far as my characters' finishers firing off, it seems entirely random. Whether they have full health, a group of them, spiders, etc... They happen for me quite frequently though.

i hate fatalities, even slow hits i could dodge blind-folded have a random chance of killing me because of them, and they are a waste of time on my part. thank god there is no bow fatality

*if fatalities in this game were half as bloody and gore inducing as those of mortal combat i might not have as big of a problem, i would still find them annoying but at least they would look nice

I'm assuming that the enemies have a one-hit-kill % chance perk.