Kensai/Mage/Thief or Fighter/Mage/Assassin?

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I was wondering which I should choose for a solo character?

Before anyone points out the obvious M/Cing restriction I have SK and this lets me use a single kit if I want to. But enough of that, obviously at the start and until you get past the SoA xp cap at least the Kensai would be better, but what about when the charcters backstab reaches +6 and then +7? the Kensai would be better for overall melee but assasin has a higher modifier so which one without the lvl cap remover would be better at backstabbing?

[ March 08, 2004, 22:35: Message edited by: Taluntain ]

 

I´d say the Kensai variant.
Say your damage range is 1-10 (just for making the math easy).
With the Kensais ability you can ensure making 10 with your hit. So getting 50 when you need it is ensured.
With the Assassin guy you could do 70.
But the chance of making maxdamage isn´t that big.
And to do 50 you need to do 7, and that is above the middle, so in this case your average damage would be 35.
Unless I´ve missed out on something concerning backstabbing.

Although, if your damage range would be say 6-10, I´d go with the Assassin.
So it all comes down to your damage range I suppose.

 

The Kensai variant.

Reasoning: 1. Guaranteed maximum damage.

2. Since you are going to be part mage, the inability to wear armor is no big deal.

3. Assassins only get 15 points to distribute on level up (while regular thieves get 25 - almost double). Since you are going to need close to 100% in both move silently and hide in shadows in order to backstab (plus you're going to want something in find traps and picklocks) you will need a TON of XP to be able to do this.

4. Assassins get X7 backstab at level 21. Even though you're soloing this guy, with three classes to divide XP between, you're going to be pretty late in the game by the time you get that X7 modifier.

 

The Kensai any day. The Armor loss ain't such a big deal since you're going part mage, you get full thievery abilites and a grand x5 backstab. Put Kai and the best fighter in the game...it'll sure be one powerful beeing.

 

Aldeth just made every point I was going to

The kensai is definilty the better choice.

 

I did this exact same multiclass with an SK'd kit so I can tell you atleast what I did.

Start off with a Kensai/Mage/Thief...then once your Thief part gets to level 16 or whichever the level is before you get the +6 for an Assassin, SK your kit from Kensai to Assassin...that way you will retain all the Kensai to-hit and damage bonuses AND get the x7 backstab modifier! It works BTW, don't say it doesnt, coz I've done it twice already.

Oh yeah, and you'd probably have to add in the Assassin's Poison Weapon ability to your innate abilities spells manually, but thats easy...

 

I have just seen that you all are saying, that the Kai can be used at backstab. It is not true! If you are hiden, and select the Kai ability, you will appear. If you select the Kai, there is not enough time to hide + go in position. Once i had a dualled Kensai/Thief and i had this problem.

So:
ad1. Kensai damage not much higher than the Assassin's
ad2. Only the weapon bonus is multiplied at backstab, not the STR and class specific...

I would bet on the Assassin.

Kensai+:
- 5* (why? to have -30 THAC0?
by the way the 5 attack is handy)
- AC -2 (do you need that?)
- Kai (can't be used with backstab, and limited)

Kensai-:
- 5x backstab (but you can grab the Staf of Magi, go away, change to katanas, hide again, and go back to backstab again...)
- Armour (the baldur's helmet is coming early in the game! +1AC-1THAC0)
- Bows (solo characters dont use bows...)

Assassin+:
- Poison!!! You can poison even the traps. Adamantite golems simply loves it!
- 7x backstab, you can kill every vampire, mindfyer or what with one hit. And unlimited! No need to rest at all.
- You can use helmets, armours early in the game (Bladesinger)
- Ranged weapons (you wont use them, rather backstab)

Assassin-:
- 2* (THAC0 is enough, you will hit most of the time - expect the critical miss - but only 4 attack per round)
- 15 thief points - choose an elf with 19dex! Why do you need 200 points in open locks? Concentrate on important ones! At the Spellhold, you will have 100 on everything expect detect illusion, and pick pocket!

[ March 11, 2004, 08:41: Message edited by: Valer ]