When to duel class ? ?

[oldbittercraig]

I'd recommend making the jump at level 9 instead. Waiting until level 13 will make it take forever to use both classes abilities, and won't undercut your mage ceiling level by too much.

[hitherebobby]

I gotta say this Kensai-->Theif combo is going to be powerful. Almost too much so. I just surpased my Kensai level and was happy to be able to put another proficiency in Katana to get to Grand Mastery. Now I can hide and backstab with fury.

[oldbittercraig]

wow... I hadn't really thought of a Kensai-Thief, but that has some great possibilities, especially for someone looking to assemble an evil party.

[Foo]

I would recommend dualling your kensai when you reach level 12, as you get several bonuses:

- Additional 'kai' ability per day
- +1 to hit, +1 to damage
- -1 to Speed factor

I dualled to a mage, and although it wasn't easy, I managed to get through to level 13 (close to 15 now), and got all of my fighting skills back. There is quite a lot of 'cheap' experience available that requires little/no combat (Paladin and orphaned girl, Wellyn, Cover-up for Jan). If you dual to a mage, you will gain 8-9 levels JUST from reading all of the scrolls you've found! Also, what I did was to 'cache' experience-I performed all of the actions required to do a quest as a kensai, but I waited until I had dualled to collect the exp-eg Circus Tent, Neb's head, Sir Sarles etc).

I found that the Trademeet quests were challenging as a Mage only, but not impossible. Also, I sided with Bodhi, so I didn't have to face vampires without Neg Plane Protection and no fighting skills-Clearing out the Shadow Thieves with Spells was fun!

[oldbittercraig]

If you dual to a mage, you can always dump everyone at the Copper Coronet and proceed to scribe a bunch of scrolls. You can also erase spells you've learned and re-scribe them if you have multiple copies of the same scroll.

Add everyone back to the party after you're done.

Cheap, but a quick way to make the first couple levels.