Kensai/Thief

SiN_Fury · Post by **SiN_Fury** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 6:20 pm

I'm aware that Kensai/Mage is talked about a lot, but I don't know about Kensai/Thief. If you think about it, it has the potential to be absolutely devastating...Though I have found out the hard way that leveling was a pain, seeing as you dual class after your character has achieved 4,000,000 experience...and by that point in the game, you are fighting rather hard monsters. At the 8,000,000 experience cap, here is the way my character is looking right now.

Grandmasters Armor +6 (1 AC, increase movement as Boots of Speed) for when I need to stealth and use thieving abilities
Enkidu's Full Plate +3 (-2 AC, 5% magic resist, immune to backstab) for big boss fights
Gauntlet's of Extraordinary Specialization (+1 THAC0, +2 Damage, +1/2 attack)
Helm of Balduran (+1 AC, +1 Saving Throw, +1 THAC0, +5 HP)
Amulet of the Master Harper (+3 AC, +20% Find Traps & Pick Locks, Immune to Silence)
Dagger of the Star +5 (15% chance to go invisible for 60 seconds on successful attack, 5% chance to do an extra 1d8 Fire and 1d8 Lightning Damage on successful attack) in the main hand for backstabbing
Crom Faeyr (Set strength at 25, kills Stone Golems, Clay Golems, Ettins and Trolls, +5 THAC0)
Ring of Gaxx (+2 AC and Saving throw, Immune to Poison and Disease, 10% magic resistance, regenerate 1 HP/3 seconds, Invisibility 1/day, imrpoved haste 3/day)
Ring of Earth Control (+1 AC, Charm Earth Elemental 1/day, Stone to Flesh 1/day)
Montolio's Cloak (+1 AC and Saving Throws, +2 THAC0 bonus for offhand)
Belt of Inertial Barrier (+5 saving throw vs. Breath Weapon, 25% resistance to missile damage, 50% resistance to magic damage [Magic Missile, Abi Dalzim's Horrid Wilting, etc.]

and I still haven't decided what to put in my boot slot since my main armor grants speed as per boots of speed.

This results in a 4 attacks per round with a -24 THAC0 in both hands (because of Montolio's Cloak), 25 Strength, and if you have an 18 Dexterity, anywhere from a -13 to -18 Armor Class (depending on which armor you wear and if you decide to go the evil route in one of your five trials in hell...I think it was the one where a companion is sacrificed). All thieving abilities will be over a hundred, you have X5 backstab multiplier, and you can cast any spell you can find a scroll for. You will have 5 warrior special abilities and 5 Thief special abilities (4 after you choose Use any Item), 6 regular snare's and 6 Kai's. 12 Weapon proficiency slots in anything the Kensai can use, 8 Weapon proficiency slots in anything the Thief can use, and only 1 extra Weapon proficiency slot is available after the Kensai class is reactivated...so you could BARELY have 2 weapons maxed out at 5 slots and have 3 slots in two weapon fighting.

As stated before, this is kind of annoying to level because when you dual class and become a thief...you STILL can't wear armor even though the Kensai class is inactive, and you still can't wear bracers or use long ranged weapons. So you pretty much let the rest of the group do all the work unless you want to turn into the slayer a lot and just give a lot of money to the church to keep your reputation average. Add on to that the fact that you only reap the benefits of this nice combination very late in the game because you need to get to level 25 Thief to get the Kensai class active...which if you add the 4,000,000 you need to be a 24 Kensai is a total of 7,300,000 experience before you even get your Kensai abilities, proficiencies, etc. back.

fable · Post by **fable** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 7:01 pm

It has been discussed repeatedly in the forum, before, as our search function reveals. That said, if you want to defend it against all comers, I'll allow this thread to stay open. Otherwise, if it's just another "try it, you'll like it!" thread, I'll close it and direct you back to several of its distinguished ancestors.

Klorox · Post by **Klorox** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 7:47 pm

WizardSlayer>Thief is better.

Thrifalas · Post by **Thrifalas** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 11:20 am

Klorox wrote:WizardSlayer>Thief is better.

Ugh, hell no. Wizard Slayer's are hideous to dual-class. :<

fable · Post by **fable** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 12:03 pm

Thrifalas wrote:Ugh, hell no. Wizard Slayer's are hideous to dual-class. :<

Come on, now. Let Sin Fury defend his stand. It's not Klorox's turn to do so.

Klorox · Post by **Klorox** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 3:29 pm

When you get UAI, the WS>T is nigh-unstoppable, and easily more powerful than any other combo since magic is most of the attacks you'll be receiving.

Thrifalas · Post by **Thrifalas** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 4:27 pm

*One* lower resistance and all your extra magic res is out the window. And you can't even use stuff like Gaxx, which would give you another 10%.

No, ws is prolly the single worst class to duo in the whole game. -_- stick to kensais, please.

fable · Post by **fable** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 4:30 pm

One more day. If Sin_Fury doesn't come back to defend his position, this thread's closed.

fable · Post by **fable** » Sat Aug 04, 2007 8:53 am

Thread closed. It's all been covered in detail before here in the forums, and Sin_Fury hasn't returned to explain anything new.

EDIT: But...if anybody wants to get back into the debate, feel free to search on kensai and find one of those "my avatar is bigger than your avatar!" threads, and have at it.