Ive heard a lot of people say their kensai is really good, but im wondering what do you do about their ac? If they cant wear armor or bracers, then do you roll a high dex or something? Also who would be a better two handed sword wielder, a kensai or a fighter with a bunch of prof. slots?

well, personally, i dislike the kensai. he wears no armor, no bracers, no helmets, no shields....NOTHING!!! all he has in his "kai" ability (whoop-dee-do)and his rediculously low thaco, especially at higher levels. at early levels, he hits more often, but later in the game, when EVERYONE can hit just about anything, i feel that they are obsolete. when my berserker was level 30, he had a thaco of -14 (roughly, give or take a few). if i dont hit anything with that thaco, then im not going to hit much at all. the difference....... i could wear armor! now, dualing him to a thief is a different animal though. once he gets high in thief levels too, he is a DYNAMITE character!!!! kensai mages are a bit over-rated as well, IMHO. i did a kensai/druid once too, wasnt bad. i made a set of elven chain that a kensai could wear, simply because elven chainmail is as light as a shirt anyway, so ANYONE should be able to wear it. just my thoughts though.

Morgan, what made them so dynamite as a character? What are the advantages of a Kensai dualed to a thief? Thanks.

Well if you dual the kensai to a theif at level say 9 you get to level 22 theif. That means that you can have and awsome hide in shadows/move silently score. You have a backstab x5 and combine that with kai and celestial fury ring of invisability, and cloak of non-detection and you consistantly backstab for over 100 (or at least i did when i played a kensai/theif) which means almost any mage is dead and everything else is badly injured or near death
that is why they are so good

I've actually played the game through with a Kensai, and I must say that it was a really great character to play. You might think that everyone can hit anything later on in the game, but no-one can come close to the consistency or the massive damage that the Kensai does. I killed Irenicus in one hit with my Kensai, and I doubt Minsc could do that!

The other thing you should think about is that the game is not just for finding the best and easiest character that you can, and then finishing it with no problems. It's about role-playing a character. I happen to find playing a character that is so good with the sword, that they don't require any sort of physical protection to aid there cause. They are simply a machine.

<font color="lawngreen" face="trebuchet MS"> Hey Aveindha... I was just wondering if ya have ever made the "look of seduction +5" I reckon it would be kewlies [img]smile.gif[/img]

Anyway The kensai IMO isnt really that great... The whole no armour or bracers gets me really bad.. so I havent really played much as a Kensai before :( </font>

So then, from what I am gathering from the "pro Kensai dualed to thief" fans is that once I reach high enough level as a thief there really is no reason to keep other thieves like Jan and in the case of Imoen keep her around for her mage spells. Am I infering correctly?

<font color="gold">I like the Kensai pretty good, but it aint my favourite.
It's a real pain in the a** that he cant wear armour and stuff, but that always works out fine for me, as I just roll a sky-high Dex. [img]tongue.gif[/img]
But I like him because he has a good THAC0, and is a really good Fighter at the higher levels. ;) Believe me, he'll become a real killer-machine in ToB... [img]smile.gif[/img] </font>