Help for Kensai please!

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My main character is a Kensai and I've only just started with her. Is there any armour she can wear? And what exactly does the special ability "Kai" do?

 

1. No, unless she dual-classes to mage and wears robes. Your best bet is to take a cleric or druid in the party and make liberal use of the spell Barkskin.

2. It maximises your damage for a short time, so with a katana that would normally do between 1 - 10 points of damage, any attack you make in the time would always do 10 damage ( + STR bonus & proficiencies). A lot of people dual class kensai to thieves for this very reason, to use kai on backstabs. A nice trick if you can get the hang of it, but fiddly to time.

Hope that helps.

 

Kensai can't wear armor or bracers. The best bets are getting Barkskin cast on you, stocking up on potions of defense and using the shield amulet.

Kai ability makes all attacks do maximum damage during a short period of time, 10 seconds iirc.

 

Get either the cloak of shield or the shield amulet. That will take care of your armour problems.

 

Also learn to use her effectively. A kensai is not a tank, and by no means you should use her as one. Send some heavy-armored, protected melee fighter (Jaheira with Ironskin, for example) and when bad guys are busy pounding him/her, send your kensai to the fry, possibly with kai active and improved hasted, and watch her kick some major a**. If you are not carefull, she will be easy target for everybody.

*Get the shortsword which casts Mirror Image 1/day, it helps tremendously, just put it in quick weapons and use its ability!

*Shield amulet helps too, as Shrikant gently mentioned.

*Spirit armor, it is awesome for kensais, have a mage cast it on your heroine, she will have awesome AC and also get a +3 bonus to save vs spell effects, which is also hugely useful.

*You may want single weapon style proficiency for extra AC, but I think a kensai must be a terrible offensive machine, so I usually get 2 weapons fighting. Equip a kensai with Celestial Fury and Crom Faeyr, 25 str damage bonus plus kensai damage bonus plus proficiency bonus plus improved haste (via spell or ring of Kangaxx) plus kai=hundreds of damage in one round! And with a THAC0 like -20s! Try it!

 

Two-handed weapon style is also amazing for the kensai (or kensai/mage). Spears, halberds, 2-handed swords and staves (for k/m) are all good options.

It can be a difficult class to play because you can't wear armor (and can get hit more often) and can't use many missile weapons. Good classes for a beginner are the Undead Slayer (if you can handle a goody two-shoes), the barbarian, or the berserker.

The Undead Slayer with a proficiency in axes (for azuredge) and 2-handed swords (for Carsomyr) is almost unfair (against undead -- and there are a lot of those).

 

I've used a Shield Amulet on a Kensai as well, and there are more than enough charges to last the whole game.

If you find you need more, sell it and buy it back for a fully charged amulet.

 

Thanks for the advice guys! Very informative and helpful!

 

I've just started game as Kensai. I gave him four slots with a Scimitar and two with dual weapons. Good, bad, or a bit of both, do you think?

 

Three slots in Scimitars and three in two weapons style would have been a better idea: reducing the off hand penalty. The difference between three slots and four in a weapon category doesn't amount to much, you only get some extra damage (the extra attacks are not implemented).
Three slots give you the same bonus to hit as four or five.

With a Kensai I'd use Single weapon style especially at a lower level (the extra AC helps a lot). At a higher level when the AC is decent it's better to switch to Two weapons style (especially for the Kai ability and the reasons Silverstar listed above).

 

Kensai's are too much hassle for me. You've always got to activate an ability, or cast a spell or do whatever whilst alwats making sure the guy isn't under attack. If your kensai gets in trouble he dies quickly. I prefer a Paladin or another fighter kit because you can just chuck them into the fray and watch them eat up damage and deal out death. More much relaxing.

 

Whats confusing about a Kensai. Just keep him way at the back of the party so that he always arrives last to the melee party. The Kensai is so strong in melee anyway that you almost never need the Kai ability.

Why did you take Scimitar's AN1F? I don't remember any very good Scimitars in unmodded SoA.

 

I took Scimitar because it felt like a weapon a Kensai would use. I changed my mind after thinking it over, however, so I've changed my proficiencies to having five in Two-Handed sword and one in two-handed weapons.

 

I disagree with Caradhras. A third star in two weapons style for kensais is nearly totally wasted.
The kensai will soon be strong enough to hit everytime (save of critical misses) even if he is not proficient with his left hand weapon.

To hit bonusses get useless for kensais pretty soon, but damage bonusses don't.

 

Belm, why else?

 

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I dont know if it is a mod or not but my Kensai/thief can wear the shadow armor that you get from the thief stronghold quest? Bug? Not sure but it works.

 

Not a bug. When your kensai dual classes, he is allowed to wear any armor the new class is allowed to wear. If you were to dual your Kensai over to Cleric he would be able to wear any armor in the game. Your kensai/thief will also be able to use ranged weapons.

 

That's fine - but you must absolutely put your next proficiency point into two handed weapons as well. The second prof points means you get a critical hit on either a 19 or 20 (as opposed to just a 20, so it essentially doubles your chances). After that, I'd suggest picking another two handed weapon (maybe quarterstaves for blunt weapon damage?)

 

Ah I never thought about a two-handed weapon wielding kensai. I think two weapon style is way to go for kensai. He can attack one extra time per round, and katanas do same damage as a two handed sword, but they are even faster.

Ofcourse there are not many good katanas in unmodded game so....

Regardless, dual-wielding CF+5 and Sanchuudoku+4 was great with a Kensai!

 

can a kensai use a club? I'm sure there is a club which has a chance of reducing Charisma by 1 every attack. Just set your cha to 3 then use the club till it goes down to 0 then suddenly back round to 25. I prefer exploiting game bugs rather than editing characters. Of course I am cursed with a delicate conciense. and bad spelling.