+5 Atk/+10% Crit/+20% Lightning spell damage. Since Lightning is Order magic based, it is one of the best spells in the arsenal of the Paladin, and since she's running with mediocre intellect, those 20% are like +4 intellect when casting a Lightning spell (not to mention that it can branch and hit all the enemies in one go, and may shock them, thus incapacitating them).

For the Warrior, the +10% crit alone is a big deal.

I am playing as a mage on hard this time, and I found a belt with +10% crit and a weapon with +20% crit very early in the game. Combined with ancient phoenix from Bolo, I had an easy time early game :)

I've found pieces of "life ring" or similar (not sure of exact name). This is not quite the same as item set. How many of these pieces are there and what exactly do they do (or for that matter) how do you use them?

The specific piece I found this game was pair of shoes mentioned in this thread that give 4 int but last game I also found a couple of pieces (again can't remember the names of these bloody thing). Both this game and last game the items were found in Elron; land of elves.

It owns Undead and Demons basically. there are three pieces, the HOly Cross (made from iron cross) the sandals... and something else I don't remember.

My issue with critical hits is at the end, when it interferes with your resurrects. You're trying to whittle down the last enemy stack as much as you can without killing it, but you have to factor in the possibility of a critical hit. Meaning you have to keep more alive, which means he might wind up killing some of your units right when you just got done resurrecting them.

Just use a control spell on the last stack. Fear, polymorph, blind. It much more consistent than trying to get an enemy down to just a couple of troops.

Ok. I have the cross. The third piece loaded last game - I think it was some sort of ring. Hopefully it will load again this game (but probably not). Hum...

Wanderer's gloves - +10 rage guarenteed for a measly 5 mana Teleport spell!
Life Bow - 8% chance to drop branch that will give a permanent +1 Intellect boost when used. (I've got 2 branches from 160 fights so far!)