I have started a new character... as i got tired of playing Diablo II. so i re-installed SoA. i dont have ToB never had time to get it (lol) but my kensia. not yet a mage is level 8 i think im supposed to duel to mage at 12. if not when.. oh here are his stuff...

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Name:Kazul
Sex:Male
Race:Human
Weapons: Sclimlitars (spelling?)
Party (at the moment. im in chap. 2): me, minsc, anomen, jaheira,airie,(thief dude from 2nd level of beginning dungeon..ie. i forgot his name ;) ) (i can dance on the head of a pin as well) (i cant belive i forgot his name @_@ )

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i am completely clueless about this type of character. which is why i picked it. i am the master mage maker :D i have a lvl 27 Sorcerer. and he is gawd. ^^

well...thats all...

Peace
Kaz

As I understand it, you're asking at what level you should dual your kensai into a mage. IMO there are at least 3 good options:

1. Immediately - your mage levels will have almost have surpassed your kensai levels by the time you are out of the first dungeon.

2. At 9th level, so that you've got 9d10 worth of hit points for your character.

3. At 13th level, when a basic fighter gets 2 attacks/round with a melee weapon.

There are probably some other good break points, depending on which levels the kensai gets his various bonuses. Be careful, however; if you haven't installed ToB or an XP cap remover and you wait too late, the mage levels might never surpass the kensai's.

hehe, pin boys name is Yoshimo [img]smile.gif[/img]

ok hes level 10 now so i think ill wait till 13. :D and yes. i have the exp cap removed. thanks for your help.

P.S. heh i am still amazed i forgot his name (lol) thx for filling me in.

13? Why 13?
I dualed my character at level 12 - he got grand mastery in Katanas and 3 points in dual weapons. I do not see what level 13 should change there, it's all about the proficiency points after all.

I dualed at lvl 9 because I wanted to get all the mage lvls and she's plenty strong enough. It all depends on whether you want a more fighting or magic oriented character. IMO, given how much insanely powerful, not to mention fun, high lvl BG2 mages are, I'd say the latter is the way to go, but it's all preference. Keep in mind too, that when you dual you will loss ALL your Kensai abilities, including THAC0, until your mage lvl surpasses your highest Kensai lvl. It's really kind of stupid when you think about it. How does one suddenly forget how to fight after years of training and combat experience, then magically "remember" a month or so later? Never made sense to me, but that's 2nd Ed. game balance for you. Anyway, my point is, the longer you wait the longer it will take to get back your Kensai levels. That was easily the worst part of the game for me, but maybe I'm just not used to playing pure mages.

The Fighter class, which the Kensai kit is based on, gets 1 attack per round through level 6, 3 attacks per 2 rounds from levels 7 through 12, and 2 attacks per round at level 13. This is before extra attacks for specialization or anything else is added in. You won't find this in the manual anywhere - it comes from years and years of playing PnP D&D. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Ah, yes, PnP D&D - where did it go? Wasn't too many years past I was eagerly waiting at cons to play D&D w/ or near Weiss and Hickman or get my latest Oil Painting or Mouse Pad signed by Elmore. Are we in a day when the simple mechanics of bringing together 3-6 friends with 8 solid hours to while away in an imaginary land while munching Doritos is just too much? [more effusive reminiscing, ad infinitum].

I'm playing a fighter/thief and dealt w/ this delimma myself. I dualed at 10, which is likely not the best time (probably lvl 13) or the second best (lvl 9). My choice was based on viewing the XP limitation and seeing what ultimate level that would allow my Thief to get to. Then, by subtracting the XP for a fighter of the different levels, I was able to figure out how much XP I could give up for the Fighter class and still have a high enough level thief that I could live with it. In short, you need 3 pieces of info: XP Cap (3 million?), Fighter level progression chart, Mage level progression chart.

BTW - I never really maxed out my character before completing the game. I was only like level 19 Stalker the first time 'round (we'll see how the second goes). Aside from limiting the number of people in your party, how do you folks obtain such un-god-ly levels?

we export them and replay the game.

when you export them you lose all your items but not your levels not sure if you lose your hit points as well. its possible tho im on my second trip thru.

Solo, and do tons side quests. The side quests are where you really get the XP.