Best lvl to dual a kensai

[ScottG]

In TOB you will need both melee & magic. The thing is that when you need magic YOU REALLY NEED MAGIC, but most of the time you need melee a lot more (and stoneskin & mirror image help out a lot here).

BTW, grab the robe of Vecna for your char. (unless you have Airhead in your party then give it to her). If Airhead has it then make sure you take the mage stronghold and make yourself an apprenti robe (which gives a better armor class but doesn't speed up your spell casting).

Dual wield celestial fury & sword of zerth (with grandmaster in katana & mastery in dual-wielding).

For those intrested in going on to TOB
a multiclass fighter/thief or
Kensai dualed to thief

is a better than a Kensai/mage because once your at about 3.3 milion exp. points you get high level abilities and can choose Use Any Item ability which allows you to

Use Mage/Cleric scrolls (so stock up now on those scrolls & on cash if you help out a certain person in TOB).

Interesting bug for increasing your cash supply "Sell high, buy low!!!"

In the fish city sell high priced items to the "merchant" and then buy them back, repeat, repeat, repeat.

[deathknight]

mistral4543 you didn't really make a bad move dualing at level 10 (probably not the optimal level since your kensai bonuses come at 9 or 12 but still not bad). the amount of xp difference between 9 and 10 is so small when you get into ToB that it won't matter that you waited a level really. If you plan to do alot of melee duty then waiting is best. Depending on your party though you may end up doing more spellcasting than anything else later in the game so you may not miss the extra levels if you had waited till level 12 or 13.