kensai/thief dual class question

Baxyratty

So i've heard that if you want to dual-class you should do so at either lvl 9 or 13. which is better for this? i was thinking 13 as you get one extra weapon proficiency at 12 with the kensai. so what are your oppinions?

JLee

K(13)>Thief:
Gains one extra Kai
1/2 extra attack/round
1 extra pip
+3 THAC0 and +1 damage vs level 9
needs 2,130,000 XP to complete

K(9)>Thief
needs only 410,000 XP to complete!!

If you have the patience/determination, it is stronger to wait. This helps by soloing/small party and scroll scribing exploits and deferred quest rewards.

I am not much for duals to begin with and personally could never wait that long to have an actualized character, but as in all things, ymmv.

Edit: forgot to account for high level thief THAC0 10.

Blackraven

@JLee put it clearly. All I can add is that HLAs become available only when the second class reaches the 1st level-up beoyond 3 million XP. Obviously this happens much later for the lvl 13 dual than for the lvl 9 dual. The lvl 13 dual would also receive four less HLAs than the lvl 9 dual.

Personally, I'd dual at level 7 (doable within BG1) or 9. My experience with dualclassing is that I want my first class to reactivate asap, and that meanwhile I'm more preoccupied with my XP progression (even up to the point of resorting to more or less immersion-breaking tricks) than with enjoying the game.

Baxyratty

ok thanks for the advice!

Wowo

I wanted to build a kensei/thief but I eventually realised that fighter/ thief multi would be more powerful most of the time and more fun all of the time.

Then when I was considering fighter/thief I realised that fighter/Mage/thief is better in almost every way and generally more fun and versatile as well.

Musigny

Wowo said:

I wanted to build a kensei/thief but I eventually realised that fighter/ thief multi would be more powerful most of the time and more fun all of the time.

Then when I was considering fighter/thief I realised that fighter/Mage/thief is better in almost every way and generally more fun and versatile as well.

A triple class may be fun in BG1 but the fighter/mage/thief progression is likely to be too slow if the OP plays BG2 with a fully staffed team.

Lord_Tansheron

Wowo said:

I wanted to build a kensei/thief but I eventually realised that fighter/ thief multi would be more powerful most of the time and more fun all of the time.

That has not been my own personal experience, though I of course mod the game quite extensively so that may factor in.

A big reason I don't like Fighter multis is that for the most part, Fighters just don't get anything worthwhile after lvl 13. Even their HLAs are only so-so, give that you can fairly easily max your APR with IH to make GWW redundant and most of the other HLAs are not very good. Also, you do lose GM in a multi which is quite a thing to give up for fairly little gain.
You do have a better THAC0 as a multi, which isn't irrelevant, but overall I've found a dual better suited for the role of thief.

All that being said, though, I usually just don't take a thief along at all in BG2 :P