what is everyones facination with a kensai-mage? i just dont understand what is so damn good about them. can someone PLEASE explain this to me?

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Morgan Corbesant, Elven BladeSinger, Captain of the army of the Seldarine

Kensai-Mage is a very good character to fight with. They have both weapon specialisation, AND spells, so both fighter and mage, without any "bad" (except for the armour) consequences. Most BG2 players find it a cheesy way to play.. at least, I think it's cheesy.

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Kensai-Mage... hmmmm... I am no expert on this subject, since I do not usually dual-class, but here are some things a Kensai Mage can do.

Extremely good in melee, what with Kai, Stoneskin, Protection from etc... and various other buffer spells that were balanced for a mage, but becomes obscenely powerful for a fighter.

Timestop + Kai = many dead things... ...

Basically, you get a Mage who will still get all his/her spell slots, with the added bonus of having Fighter abilities. From what I gather, this is one of the most popular kits to solo with.

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Baldur's Gate Item Mart

PLus you get fighter's hitpoints (at least until you dual) and you have means of doubling that by casting Tensor's transformation....

i know about most of that. i almost always play an elven fighter/mage. i just didnt understand that KENSAI-mage idea, it just seems to be big. why not just use a normal fighter/mage. that is what i meant to ask.

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Morgan Corbesant, Elven BladeSinger, Captain of the army of the Seldarine

I dont like Kensai-Mages characters because they cant wear any bracelets and armors. Yep, armor isnt important for mage but bracelets are critical important. And I like to wear shiny armors helms. Swashbuckler to mage is also a good dual class, fighter dual cleric too

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Yngwie J. Amadeus Zoltan "Diamond Fighter of Aerie Lovers Sacred Band"

as a Kensai Mage you can wear robes. So simply put on either Robe of Vecna or robe of some archmage and your AC base becomes 3. With dex bonus - down to -1, 3 from blur, 4 from Improved Inivisbility, 4 from Tensor's Transformation - we are down to -12, plus Stone skin, plus some fireshield, plus mirror Image. Need I say more? Kensai mage is usually considered TOO Powerful combination.

I've said this before, but if you are planning for the kensai/mage to kick ALOT of ass in melee combat, dual at a very high level, because if you dual at 9-12, his melee skills will be relatively weak when entering ToB.

Yeah level 9 I think is probably too low but at level 12 you can kick alot of tail in ToB. For THE hardest fights in ToB you probably will be doing more spellcasting than anything else (i mean if you are over a level 20 mage I am sure you can do some massive spellcasting)

Ayways for the reason why Kensai/Mage is so good: The drawbacks for mages and for kensai overlap. And in some nutty way dualing to a mage allows a kensai MORE ac due to the use of robes. Through spells and items you can achieve a VERY high ac. coupled with buff spells you can really become indestructable. The kensai bonuses for hit and damage are VERY nice if you are going to dual class. You essentially get 4 more levels worth of thac0 if you dual at level 12. Also you get the ac bonus of a kensai to throw on top of the ac of robes. This is better than a fighter dualing to a mage because of the bonus thaco0 & damage PLUS a fighter cannot use all that armor so why even go fighter? Robe of vecna is ac 5 and ROCKS! having a guy that can go toe to toe with the enemy AND throw out a slow casting spells almost instantly is sooo fun.

Now when you get to a very high level as a mage the posibilities of what you can do are totaly insane. Tenser's transformation is nice,similicrum is super cool and when you get up to timestop its not even funny the carnage you can cause.

Actually zoltan I read your thing about bracers but I cannot think of a single pair of bracers I needed to wear. What bracers would you be refering to? I think robe of vecna + kensai ac bonus is going to get you just as good as the best bracers of defense would. There are some good gauntlets out there too but kensai bonuses should all give a better stat increase than any of the gauntlets do.