I rolled up a Blade, finding his abilities a bit intriguing. At level 9 or so I can get a 9 ac bonus three times, a day and a +2 hit/+2 dam +1 additional attack, three times a day. Plus I can pickpocket items from most merchants, and have gotten two +2 shields.

I also rolled up a Kai, after hearing how Kai-mages ruled. The Kai has 18/00 str, 18 dex, 18 const, 17 intelligence, and even enough left over to have 9 charisma. I put three points in katanas, two points in axes (hoping for magic throwing axes, not sure if he can use) and one in 1-handed style. Now I see that there are a lot of mages in the game and I'm not sure if the Kai-mage (despite an attributes amazing roll) is the way to go.

What do you suggest? The answer seems to depend on whether it's easy to find elven chain; and how far a kai-mage can advance if he leveled to 8 as a kai. I find having a bard is nice just to not waste time or money on identifying items. Also, if I keep the kai, should I edit his skills so he's a master at long or bastard swords?

Whoops, I called them "Kais" instead of Kensais...

Kensai mages are very popular because you can level them to 9, have grandmastery in a weapon and specialisation in a fighting style, then dual to a mage and still attain the maximum level for mages (17). To be brutally honest with you, the blade stinks. Bards just aren't cut out for hand-to-hand fighting and blades lose a fairly large portion of their lore. If you want to play a bard, play a skald, they're very good. Defensive spin renders you immobile, so you become a pincushion for archers, and offensive spin might have been good if the blade could do any decent sort of damage, or possibly stand up to more than two strokes from a longsword.

SO! You think you can get a Kensai to 9th level then a full level mage!?! YOU ARE A MORON. Next you'll be telling me you can get a multiclass Fighter mage to 21/17th level! YOU COMPLETE DICKHEAD!

Oh for ■■■■'S SAKE YOU DICKHEAD, GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT! You don't know SHIT about this game! You dual your kensai at level 9, when he has 250,000 XP, and then get him to level 17 as a mage. The XP cap is 2,950,000, a mage needs 2,625,000 XP to get to level 17. 2,625,000 = 2,875,000 XP, which is below the cap, do you understand? Go back to prep and learn addition, fuckhead.