Kensai/thief vs kensai/mage

Remove all ads!

Who is better, kensai/thief or kensai/mage?

I think the kensai/thief is more powerfull because of the high lvl thief ability USE ANY ITEM + the timestop trap. The thief combination has lower AC and THACO. And the KENSAI BONUSES are great. The mage, however, can cast timestop...and then (my favourite) TENSER!

[This message has been edited by The_Prophet (edited April 23, 2002).]

 

The kensai/mage is somewhat more powerful than the kensai/thief. Just think on using protection from magical weapons, stoneskin, mirror image in combat! I killed all the SoA and ToB dragons with my kensai/mage all alone. The kensai/thief's only real advantage could only be the over powerful backstab. But I can't imagine a samurai sneaking, attacking from behind the shadows...

 

A Samurai not, but when thinking Ninja? Most definetely!

 

Could take SoA alone with one kensai/mage so I think that one is better.

 

I think the kensai/thief can cast spells too, with his/her Use All Item ability. By the way the question is quite interesting.
I hate sleeping all the time, and the backstab is a very powerful ability. I usually kill dragons with traps...so I would prefer the thief .

Let see advantages of kensai/thief
- Backstab ( damade above +200 ) every hit is a kill
- Use all item - kensai CAN use armor this way (very low AC -12 -15)
- You can cast spells from scrolls
- Very effective traps (no save)
- Assassination + Kai makes the frontal attack mortal
- No need to rest all the time, makes the game more interesting
- Thief advance level faster than the mage, you will regain your abilities sooner.

Did I forget something?

Oh, yeah! Try to play with a !!!lonely!!! kensai/mage...it's almost impossibile...you can't disarm traps, only detect. And why is it important? In the SoA you can advance 2 levels per quest, if you are playing alone!!! At the end of the SoA you can have 18 million XP!!! And a great amount of traps

 

Try to play with a lonely Kensai/Mage --- Yawn.

No challenge in that.

Do like Earl Grey and pick a worthless (in some eyes of course) kit with horrible stats.
You might be surprised at people can do.

 

It's very easy to solo a Kensai/Mage through Bg2, some even call it cheesy. Desu described it best. "Yawn."

Also, you can't detect traps with a Kensai/Mage.

And also you can't have traps with a Kensai/Mage.

Oh, and iirc you can't have a 18 million xp by the end of SoA without an Excap remover.

Leveling twice a quest depends solely on the amount of exp you gather from it. There are lots of low exp sidequest, I doubt they'd level you twice.

How does not sleeping make the game more interesting? I find it very interesting to take into account the fact I can be attacked when going to sleep.

 

Why even bother about Kensai/Mage or Kensai/Thief, when a Kensai/Druid is much more fun...

Imagine a Kensai lvl 20+ being able to cast Rightouteus Power and Spirit Armor, while wearing a Full Plate Mail +2...

Nearly impossible to kill, have more hit points and can actually "Gate" creatures much sooner than a mage...

Just MHO

 

Kensai/Druid, interesting... I'm a bit rusty on DC-rules, but is the K/D allowed to wield swords? (Else the whole swordsaint idea is kinda misplaced) Is he allowed/able to use Fullplate armor?

Interesting idea.

 

The kensai is a fighter kit, and fighter/druids use the druid weapon limitations (not the armour limitations though, but kensais can't use armour anyway).

 

Yes, i was wrong, kensai/mage can't find trap, that is a priest or druid spell.
But this way, how can anybody play solo with this character? There are so many traps in the game, and lots of them can be deadly... What is the trick?

Maybe exciting woring about to find a suitable place to sleep, but i don't like any break.

I think the ExpCap remover is not a cheat, i think the ExpCap itself is not fair, a bug what must be fixed. Programmers should be prepared for the possibily if somebody using a solo charachter and completes all the quest...

 

The trick is to learn what's trapped and whatnot by trying out stuff. If you die because of a trap, you reload. also, most traps merely try to hurt you. Only a few actually kill. And of the top of my head, there's no trap that prevents you from completing the game if you can't disarm it.

 

I've only found one trap that can kill you instantly, in the house of the lover to the Pirate Lord (think the house is named Cyntia's House). The trap is on the bookshelf, and fires a Disintegrate Spell at you... not that fun...

As for the Kensai/Mage I would never Dual Class like that, first Kensai and then Monk... imagine a monk using Kai together with Greater Whirlwind Attack and Improved Deathblow... I wouldn't like to be the target of that...

 

Rathan, you can't dualclass a kensai to a monk. You can't dual or multiclass anything with a monk for that matter.

There are more traps that can kill you instantly. For example there's the trap in Spellholdmaze, in between the room of riddles and the location of the bag of holding. Never been able to disarm that one trap.

 

yeah, all i could do for that trap was sending my summoned monster... instant kill, never failed....

Rathan, sorry to say that but it's Greater Deathblow, not Improved Deathblow.
and:
Greater Whirlwind lasts for 1 round
Greater Deathblow lasts for 1 round
so you can't attack using both of them at the same time.
however, Kai lasts for 10 sec, which can be combined with one of them above.

 

Sorry I think this is a real good advantage of the kensai/thief that it can disarm traps... I don't like saving the game in every minute... But that's me...

 

I just started with kensai/thief, so after a month or two I'll say you how it is...

 

To Faragorn: You're right, sorry about that one, just think that I thought on the standard 3 edt. AD&D rules.

But I don't think that the way you dual class should be Kensai/Mage, but Kensai/Sorcerer (if possible (Faragorn do you that?)).

 

No that's not possible in BG2, since they sorta follow the 2nd edition rules. That means you can't dual anything with the following classes: Sorcerer, Monk, Barbarian, Paladin, Bard.

Kensai/Sorcerer would be even more overpowered than Kensai/Mage.

And please, it's Faragon

 

Ok Faragon (did I get it right?), do you know of any mods or the like that will allow these duals?

PS: I think I wrote Faragorn, because it sounds so much like the name Aragorn from The Lord of the Rings (thank you Tolkien for making this game possible)...