Developing a Kensai/Thief

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I want to dual my Kensai to thief. A permanent evil party of 4 (Kensai/thief, Korgan, Edwin and Viconia) sounds excellent to me. Here’s my question:
At what level would a Kensai be able to achieve a weapon grand mastery? Hopefully someone out there knows when (at what levels) different classes acquire proficiency points to distribute? I haven’t found a single site that goes into what each class gains at each new level. Any info would be appreciated. )

 

Warriors (paladins Rangers fighters barbarians): Get 4 initial slots which u cant spend more than 2 in one weapon, after that they get 1 slot each 3ed lvl. Only Fighters can have more than 2 slots in one weapon..
So first at lvl 9 a fighter can have 5 slots in a weapon...
Priests and Rogues: Get 2 initial slots and get one each 4th lvl, and they cant have more than 1 slot in a weapon...
Wizards: get 1 initial slot, and one each 6th lvl, and only one in each weapon...
Hope this is corect and that it helped u out.

DEUS

 

Thank you Deus . . . very helpful. I was also wondering about backstab with a kensai/thief but someone on the other board answered that. He said he has done damage up in the high 100's with Kai! Nice

 

In the back of the manual I have seen what weapon skill pts do for you. I have not discovered what weapon STYLE pts do for you specifically. The manual and the FAQ don’t cover many melee specifics.
I have been under the “impression” that it’s best to keep things even . . . 2 pts to 2-handed sword & 2 pts to 2-handed sword style, etc. etc. However, I have been doing so blindly and I hope I haven’t been wasting points.
I’m very interested in your opinions concerning proficiency SKILL points vs. proficiency STYLE points.

 

I'm playing a Kensai, and I started out with 6 slots. However, it is a good idea to use some on the single weapons, to make up for the lack of armour.

 

For weaponstyle, check it out when u create a caracter, by selecting them, then u can read about them...

 

I have a kensai dueled to mage. He has 5* in hammer (for Crom Faeyr (sp?)) and 2* in dual wield. I dualled him at level 9, and with mirror image, protection form mag, weapons, haste etc. he is deadly. Thinking about it now, I should have given in 2* in single weapon instead of dual wield.

 

Kensai Mages are obscenely deadly
but a Kensai Thief sounds REALLY interesting...
thanks for the character suggestions...

 

A further question on this line: Can a kensai/mage dual wield any sword? or is he restricted to mage-type swords?

 

Kensai mages can use any weapon a fighter can use in any style.

 

I have just started a Kensai/Mage and although he does AWESOME damage and really looks the part he is still restrictive. He still is unable to use missile weapons (I wasted wizard slot in sling) and of course not being able to wear armour, helms, shields and gauntlets means that your AC will never reach the levels that the other members of your party reach (even the mages).

I am enjoying running him but he sure does get hit a lot.

 

Try wearing the Archmage's robe
with a good dexterity plus the kensai AC bonus and maybe a ring of protection, I got my Kensai/mage to AC -8
With Kai and boots of speed....Unstoppable
They can also use mage spells like protection from weapons, stone skin and mirror image so AC isn't such a big issue

 

is it possible to select a kit at the start if your multiclassing from the start of the game i like the sound of a kensai thief too and just wondered how do you select kensai kit

 

For armor class on a Kensai mage (only if you have collector's edition cd) get the robe of Vienca(horrible spelling I'm sure) and Zerkons Derth blade(Spelling?). The AC on the robe is 5 and reduces casting time by four. It lets you whip out level 1-4 spells in absoloutly no time back to back. The sword gives +1 AC and an aditional 1-4 level spells. With a nice ring of protection and ring of regeneration and dualing with Adjeth the Drinker, and some good protection spells memorized of course(just for fun, throw in Dex 18), your character should rarely get into health trouble and end up with a fairly nice AC. Incidently, make sure you don't dual till level nine for HP reasons as well as weapon proficiencies.
For home-sick alien, the only way to multi class with kits is with the shadow keeper editor. just multi class and then use it to pick Kensai as you kit. You can of course select a Kensai as a kit and then dual to a generic thief. You will keep the Kensai kit abilities once you get your fighter skills back. You can honestly develop a better character on every level with dual classing than multi classing in this game.
Incidently, I don't rember if my Kensai could dual to anything but a mage. I know one of my fighter kits could only dual to a mage and one could be either a thief or mage. Both times my character met the reqs for both new classes. No clue why.
As a side note, does anyone know why a Kit fighter dual mage has the spell number of a specialist mage(not that I'm complaining)?

 

For kensai/thief you can get shadow armor (from BG1).It is AC4 and 15% hide in shadows.

 

Well, being a Kensai-Thief, I dual classed from a 13th level Kensai to a Thief. Of course it really doesn't matter when you dual class if you have the XP cap removed; but otherwise, the best time to dual class from a fighter class is at level 13. (If you plan to go to a Thief anyway. You get another weapon prof. at 12 and another 1/2 attack at 13.) The most damage I delt with a Kensai-Thief was 131. (161 with the cap removed)

 

Since we're on the subject, I know that Kensais are not allowed to use missile weapons, but can they use throwing axes and throwing daggers? More importantly, can they use the boomerang axes and boomerang daggers in the game. I want to throw things at those despicable beholders and their close cousins, the gauths. Coming across one, I definitely don't want to rush in with melee weapons and discover that there is one whole flock(?) of them floating behind the one you just saw. Ugh!

 

yup, kensai drawbacks can be eased somewhat by using this "boomerang" items (anyway, nice term ganz) like axes and knives and the ion stones; hmmm kensai/thief is a really deadly combo... BoD AC 2, need I say more