What determines when you do a finishing move?

The official strategy guide confirms that they are random, and that they do no extra damage: they're pure aesthetics. It suggests that you can increase your chances by executing a power attack on the last enemy in a group.

I figured out if you flick the left stick forward, while at the same time tapping R1 (Ps3) then I almost always do a finishing move. I think there are some stipulations to it though. Like having the health down low enough, and I've noticed if I'm a lot higher level than my opponent I can do a finishing move right from the get go. I read allot online that it was random but I've tried it quite a few times now and it never fails (maybe I'm wrong?). Try and see if it works for you.

I've noticed that when using weapons with Absorb Health enchantments, I get very few finishing move sequences. (swapped out to a vanilla weapon and got way more finishing moves)

I suspect that perhaps if the target dies from the enchantment and not from weapon damage, it won't even have a chance to trigger.

I've noticed that when I sneak behind an enemy and just hit the attack button once, it doesn't seem to do the sneaky finishing move/stealth kill, but I just did it twice in a row to two enemies when I snuck behind them and tapped the attack button twice and I got the aesthetic kill. It may be a double tap as drained stamina doesn't seem to be a factor.

Not sure if this applies but I was testing different spellsword combinations and found I did A LOT of finishing move kills even from >80% health if I was healing in left hand while spamming attack after they power swing.

I would slash, move back, cast heal (wait for their attack), dodge, spam attack (while still healing) and move forward or to the side towards the enemy.

Seemed that out of 8 enemies (Whiterun guards) I did 6 in this way. an impressive stat as they are normally on the tougher side.

Note: you can cast heal while attacking if you don't move or power attack.

(9 times out of 10) When the last enemy has less than an inch of health left, you need to aim your crosshair at the enemy for 2 seconds.(seriously. Two whole seconds!) Then "pull your left joystick downward/backward and quickly hold your RT attack button to execute your power move". This WILL ignitiate the cinematic death blow manually and not randomly. This works even better if you successfully counter block & stagger the dying enemy's last power attack.

The finishing moves simply happen when you have a melee weapon, click to attack someone when no other enemy is nearby, you and your target are on flat ground and you are able to kill them with your next attack.

It is not at random. If you used a finisher move on an enemy that is at full health, thats because that enemy is weak like a regular bandit and you can kill them in one hit without doing a finisher move anyway.

The having no other enemies rule doesnt apply for them for they can deal finisher moves to one another and even you when you have a companion by your side.

Two handed weapons seem to be able to do finisher moves to many enemies such as giants, bears, dwemor centrions, falmers, drougars(undead things), dragons and trolls however weapons such as daggers can only deal finisher moves to humans and spiders.

You can also do finisher moves from behind standing up or sneaking.

Werewolves... It seems that they can do finisher attacks to enemies even when other enemies are nearby.

Correct me if im wrong.

From the Elder Scrolls wikia:

360 To perform a finishing move on command is done by tapping RT and moving the left stick forward at the same time. PS3 Performing a finishing move can happen randomly in a fight but can be done on command by tapping R1 and flicking the left analog stick forward. A finisher factors in how strong the player is against its enemy and how the player's character is positioned. PC To perform finishing move press forward button and Mouse button corresponding to the character's weapon-hand when enemy is at low health.

Like Pyrodante said, if you want to do a finisher on command (not randomly), all you have to do is move forward with the left analog stick while at the same time pressing the right trigger (xbox360). It works better if it is a flick rather than a power attack.

After a lot of testing, I can say that I always do a finisher against the last agressive enemy on the radar. As long as there's more than one red dot, there will be no finisher. By reducing the number of red dots to 1 only through calm and similar spells, you could theoretically do a finisher against every enemy. When resurrecting a dead enemy and then turning it agressive after 4 hits, I always kill them with a finisher. There's no finisher if the resurrected enemy is killed before becoming agressive.

Well, based on my experience (255 Hours of Gameplay) Skyrim those above, seem to be true for me, with every character.

Stealth Assassination Finishing Moves

• Happens most of the time when the target is a human and is standing up. Any direction will work here, from sides, behind or even in the belly.
• Will only happen if you have enough damage to one hit kill the target on your sneak atack. If your damage is not able to one shot the enemy, no animation will be shown, just a normal bonus sneak atack. As it is a finishing move, the enemy won't stay alive after the hit.

Close Ranged Finishing Moves ( Both One handed and Two Handed Weapons )

• Holding the sprint button and running towards a enemy from a close range (Not running the entire map, it has to be close) and power atacking happens to proc the animation more offen. Even without perks in those trees.

• Again, the damage must be high enough to kill the enemy. As it is a finishing move, the enemy won't stay alive after the hit.

More Skills or Critical Strike Chance Mean More Finishing Moves:

Since the damage must be high enough to kill the target for the finishing move to happen, if you have a higher one handed skill level for instance, your damage output will be higher, allowing you to execute enemies more frequently.

Same applies for critical, since critical helps the damage output, with a higher damage, you will be able to kill enemies that you wouldn't be able to without a critical strike.

Needs Testing Here:

I am not sure if the enchantings and potions bonuses apply after or before the sneak atack multiplier. But if the damage calculated for the multiplier involves the extra damage from enchantings and potions, it would also help you to get more animations.

Kill moves occur at a set rate, similar to critical hits. As previously mentioned they're pure aesthetics, so you actually have to do enough damage to finish off an enemy to trigger one. This is why power attacks tend to yield kill moves more often. I'm not sure about whether you take damage during them, but I assume it's at least weakened. Also, I have PC version and am fairly certain they can occur mid-battle, but probably at a smaller rate. Obviously, ranged weapons have no kill moves (they should, in my opinion) and I've heard that sometimes being really close to your target or killing a particularly weak mob works better, as the chance may increase the more damage past 0HP is dealt.

That's pretty much all the info I've scraped up. Most of it should be reliable.

How I get my finishers is when the enemy is near death i quickly move forward and backward while tapping the attack button.