The ultimate build for a Kensai/Mage?

Well, you are powergaming, so what are you doing with such lousy stats? With a little patience you can have 93-95 total points, which would give you 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, x (ring of human influence will bump this to 18 when visiting merchants). If you don't want to wait for the 93 + step, you can still have wisdom of 15 with a total of 90 points.

If you really want to powergame, run a fighter through BG1 & TOTSC after rolling the 93+ range and, with all of the tomes, you will be able to import a character (fighter) who can be a Kensai, with 161K exp and the following stats: 19, 19, 19, 19, 21, 4-6. (Remember that there are 3 tomes of wisdom in BG1.)

As for dualling, that is really dependent on how you are using the character and whether you expect to take him/her through TOB. Assuming just SOA (or you wouldn't have posted in this forum after reading the rules), you probably want to dual earlier to ramp up spellcasting power. Maybe 9th level after weapon proficiency bonus. If you wait until 13th level (I think that's when you get the next 1/2 attack per round), you are not going to have a great deal of time to bump up the mage part to reactivate the Kensai part. You didn't indicate if you are soloing, which would solve the experience problem but make you ripe for the picking when you dual class.

As for the "stuff" to get, it's too numerous to mention, depends on your money situation, depends on how you plan on playing the character, and is completely subjective with the exception of certain obvious choices for mages (robe of vecna, staff of the magi).

When building the character, you may want to take five stars in staff because of the staff of the magi, if that's your playing style.

 

Wow - first post and it's a thread necromancy from 2003! And probably not really responsive in any event other than tangentially on the item of weapon choice.

Please feel free to start a new thread extolling the virtues of staves.

Thanks.

 

Well, we're going far off topic. Thread necromancy is OK if the point is actually, you know, on point. IMO, this wasn't.

 

We've got this covered in our rules (#3) though we're usually even more lenient than it says there. I've got no problems with 10 year old threads being revived, as long as the response is on-topic and meaningful. Basically, if Anathema expanded on his comment it'd be fine... as it is though, it's just kind of a drive-by comment and it makes little sense to bring such an old thread back just for that.

 

It's only bad if the dead thread is resurrected for a reason other than the topic, or is addressing some triviality that likely was posted by someone no longer around to read it.

 

Well, looking at my answer from 11 years ago up this thread, I have the same types of questions for you.

Are you soloing the character or going with a party? Are you planning on playing the character as a fighter with mage tendencies or vice-versa? Answering these two questions will help me give you better answers to your overall questions. However, I'll take a stab.

1. If in a party, I like my mage types to be in the back mostly and firing spells and missile weapons. Thus, I would go for some sort of bow and a staff as lending themselves for distance. I suppose two handed swords are OK as well, but that would be a proficiency I would think appropriate for front liners. If this is going to be a warrior then I still would lean away from two handed swords because I think shields are important not only for AC bonuses but for additional things they can give you (don't want to spoiler this but there are plenty of shields that give additional benefits on top of straight protection in a fight). Even if I were not going with a shield, I would probably dual wield.

2. Ideally, you will finish it completely or almost so (you can't get all of the really useful tomes until late in the game). If you look at my first post above from April 16, 2003, you'll see that I advise that it is relatively easy to leave BG1 with 19/19/19/19/21/x in stats. Look in our BG1 section in the main site for guides. There are several that can tell you where to find all of the tomes.

3. Not sure what you mean. Multi-player involves creating at least two characters for your party, rather than starting with just the one and adding (or not) the NPCs offered by the game. If you meant multi-class, you're actually mistaken in that this is a dual-class build. They are actually rather different. Multi-class characters cannot be human and start with at least two operative classes. The character splits experience between the two or three classes all the way and they never stop increasing unless you hit the experience cap (which most people disable these days). They have snazzy benefits but tend to level up slowly in the beginning and early mid game.

Dual class characters, however, must be human. They start life as one class and then convert to another at some point. At that point their first class goes inoperative and they level up the second class starting from level one. The initial class does not reactivate until the second class exceeds the first class by one level, at which point both classes become active but the character only advances in the second class and all experience goes to that advancement only. There are stat requirements for that greater than just starting a character ready for either class, but you are going to make sure strength and intelligence are 18 so that doesn't matter. Also, dual classing has the benefit of legally having a kit on your first class (here Kensai for the fighter class). Multi-class characters cannot have a kit on either class the way the game is written (although you can easily edit one in if you feel like it). There are other pluses and minuses that I can get into if you want.

So, in any of the above scenarios, there really is no downside to having a wisdom of 3 except for what it will do to your lore skill and a couple of spells that look at your wisdom once you cast them. The game does not implement negative wisdom issues found in pen and paper D&D.

That being said, there's no reason at all to have a wisdom that low. Your dump stat if you are powergaming a character of this nature (and it really lends itself entirely to powergaming anyway) is charisma. You can spend 10 minutes rerolling and I guaranty you will be able to make a character with 18/18/18/18 and at least 15/3 on wisdom and charisma (and with a little more patience, 18/3 or better), so I fail to see the point.

Welcome to the boards. If you post answers to my questions, I will be able to give you further answers in line with your goals. (Unless someone else comes and does it first.)

 

Wish spells check wisdom. Plus it's useful for lore.

Dual wield does not double your attacks. It adds one for the off hand. The point is both to add some extra damage and to benefit from the off hand weapon's other features (again, not giving you info on the abilities of specific weapons here).

If your goal is to be fighter with mage benefits, you want to dual at 9 (for the extra weapon pip) or 13 (for the extra half attack per round). I see very little benefit to doing anything else. If you want to be a mage with some fighter benefits, you dual at 7 or 9.

Remember that you should not overlap weapon pips between the classes because you lose the lesser of the total -- i.e., when you reactivate the first class, the game does not give you the total of the weapon pips in a particular weapon type, it gives your the higher of the two, so you always want to make sure that the lower number is zero. (That means don't take quarterstaff pips as a fighter and then add them as a mage. I personally like the staffs available in the game, but mainly for a mage focus rather than a fighter focus.)

Although you did not answer directly, I am assuming that you are going with a party. In that case, I would recommend dualling at level 9 because the experience is split between party members and it takes a good, long while to level up to mage 14 after Kensai 13 if you are sharing experience points.