I’ve being reading about kensai mage. My character is a kensai mage. But no I still wonder at what level dual my kensai into a mage?? And why? I know there are a lot of posts about that, but to many arguments about the convenience of this combination, instead of when to dual. I like the idea of a kensai mage not because the armor issue, but simply because I felt in love of the combination, and want to explore it.

I would say level 9 for SOA. You get to max out hit points and you get the +3 for hit and damage!

Thanks, sorbo, but I'm planning to buy ToB either... does this work the same if I'm taking my charactr up to ToB??

And about weapon specialization... do I stick to katanas?? or is a good idea war hammer??

[This message has been edited by mannedoc (edited October 17, 2001).]

It's sorvo:) The character will work the same but you might want to go to level 12 for TOB. As for specialization I thought kensai's have to use swords?

yes, level 12 is the *optimum* time to dual your kensai to a mage

...and about weapon spec, one of the most giving choices is this: you get 6 skill points in char creation, and say you go with 3 for dual and 3 for katanas, knowing that in game you'll get one kickass katana and can buy one which is great for mages as well.
Some ppl play like it, others like diff weapon choices or single wepon skill to get down their AC more, but considering the fact that you'll have a number of mage protective spells, you may find that 1 AC point is not so important.

I thought it was best to dual at lvl 13. I believe i have read that somewhere.

I consider dualling to mage at lvl-13 (rather than lv-12) better than dualling at lvl-12 for this will give you the 3rd melee attack. This becomes more important in ToB (if you intend to play it).

I created some sample chars [I just note the fighter-level for the dc chars] (lvl-9, 12 & 13 dc kensai-mages and an mc-fighter-mage for a test run in ToB and I felt that the lvl-9 and lvl-12 kensai-mages were somewhat inferior in melee. I found the mc fighter-mage was about equal (at the beginning of ToB - means at about 2.000.000 xp) with the lvl-13 kensai-mage while beeing inferior in terms of spellcasting.
I want to point out that, when comparing the dc kensai-mage and an mc fighter-mage, the kit boni of the kensai become important (just compare a kensai-mage with a pure lvl-13 dc fighter-mage).
So it may indeed be so, that the dc kensai-mage is stronger than the mc fighter-mage. I, as a powergamer, think that THACO cannot be too low :D (however, excluding the use of crom in general - maybe this was the reason for Anomen's :hmm: unnatural, :D THACO) so I still favor the mc fighter-mage.

However, if you want to play SoA only, I think that dualling at lvl-9 is IMO absolutely sufficient. My kensai-mage was of that level and though I never finished playing him through BG-2 SoA (for I got IWD :D ) he was pretty tough.

btw - a topic mainly about mc & dc fighter-mages and pure mages can be found here:
http://www.sorcerers.net/ubb/Forum10/HTML/000536.html

[This message has been edited by Ragusa (edited October 18, 2001).]

Dual at lv13. The extra attack is worth it. Otherwise, try lv12. You can never be too good at melee.

im sure if you dont max *everything* out you will still be pretty damn powerful

Hi, thank you for your answers. To useful. Unlucky I was playing, and didn’t read on times this, so my kensai was dual at level 10th. Well, my mistake, but is part of the game. Didn’t answer before because I was traveling, and later playing. Sorry for that. But thank you for your answers.

What I’ve learned of my kensai; he is a wonderful fighter and mage, this game. But not strong enough against some enemies. I was playing with a kensai level 9th before, and making comparisons with my actual 10th level kensei. If you want an strong fighter, go for a higher level; but if you want an strong mage, dual at level 9th, and is great. I think that with ToB a higher-level fighter is ok, because there is enough time if you make your character from SoA an strong fighter and later a mage. But if you are only playing ToB, just wait until level 9th. I don’t know if I’m ok, because haven’t played yet ToB. But the comparison between a kensai level 9th and 10th is big. Btw, the specializations must be on swords, you were right.

So, this message is to thank all of you for the answers.