It is strange.

Interesting. May want to test out whether elves really get a long bow, long sword bonus too, if it doesn't show up...

HI guys. Probably a little late for this, but check out the Thac0 score. My kensai has to roll a one to miss. I can't remember the level now, as I've been messing around in BG1, but I hit AC0 on a -7 or -8. I think that is a pretty good score...

Stealth, I would think that you get x6 backstab at level 17. Here is my guess: You start at level 1 with x2 backstab, and get 1 extra every 4th level. This means you get x5 backstabs at level 13, x6 at level 17, x7 at level 21, x8 at level 25 and so forth.

Hello robertthehead. There shouldn't be any THACO-difference between a pure fighter, berserker, ranger etc and a kensai. The only difference here is the "damage" and "to hit".
I don't know what "to hit means", but maybe it is improving your THACO, I don't know. Read the posts above, because it tells more about the kensai.

Rikard, at what levels do assasins get their extra backstab multipliers? I like the idea of a Kensai lvl 9 dualed to an assasin! Yes, I know I would have to use Shadowkeeper, but imagine the backstabs he could do! OUCH!

Yea, my Kensai has a ThacO of under -10 now that I'm near endgame. The only was I can miss is with a 1. Sure helps fighting the demi-lich. Once my Kensai hit level 15 it was all over for everything. When I was in Fish City, i used the rest of my party to just keep them occupied and let my Kensai literly kill everything in one round. 4 attacks per round with dual longsord/katana. Can do over 100 pts of damage per round not counting any critical hits or using Kai. I do see the Kensai bonus in my Thaco's. When I leveled up from 14 to 15, the Thaco went down by 2 (1 for being a fighter class, 1 for the Kensai bonus). Same happened at level 17 to 18.

I think the Kensai is looked at highly because it's perfect to dual class to a mage because the Kensai can't wear armor and stuff and a mage can't either so you get all the Kensai bonuses over a plain fighter and don't lose any abilities to be able to case spells (like you would if you were a plain fighter). So you can't wear bracers, big deal. Get the Cloak of the Archmagi and you get a better armor class and magic resistance anyway. The highest AC any of my pure mages have is -4 by mid game.

Anyway, the Kensai rocks!

Is the "damage" different? I mean how much bonus to damage do you get? Does it get added by the strength bonus once it gets passed it?

I have also thought the kensai is great, and it seems that it deals out as much damage as it should, even though it doesn't show at low levels.

bonscott87, you forgot a great combo....the kensai/thief!!!!