Swashie is better with more +s... IE as many levels of it as you can get. It can't backstab anyways, so if you plan to melee, it is a good pure choice. Not sure why you'd really want to dilute it with a 3 way, capping at +4s seems pretty awful compared to backstab in most fights. Kensai at least has late game showiness I would argue, but losing GM hurts Kensai a good bit.
Other than Shadowdancer and Wild Mage (...we aren't talking No Reload, right?), Assassin is probably the best, though it won't be the best for the very few enemies immune to poison/backstab I would say. Shadowdancer would probably be much better as a 2 way multi though, Shadowdancer/Mage, and abuse HiPS with casting for hilarity. Or just a dual class, that'd work swimmingly too. I am going way off topic here, aren't I?
Edit: I know in Vanilla BG2 Kensai with throwing daggers was very, very nasty, just wasn't sure if EE nerfed that little exploit.
Why are people hung up on things like AC, btw? This is a Fighter/MAGE/Thief, right? Who needs AC when you've got spells.
The people who also play this game without being level uber? Where you got a few spells only and throw in SCS and No reload and you'll get wrecked quite easily on a F/M/T. In Baldur's Gate 1 a full plate is just about the most game changing item you can get, it's first when you hit late SoA and ToB that AC isn't as important.
@Lord_Tansheron and @SionIV both have a point. On the one hand, I would play an F/M/T very much as a Spellblade or whatever people call it (an arcane fighter whose spells are almost without exception buffs), so that even at low levels with few spells, my F/M/T would be good at tanking (Shield, Mirror Image, Blur).
If on the other hand SCS and no-reload are taken into consideration, then trading in some Kensai offense for some extra Swashbuckler defense could be worthwhile. (Though I'd probably go with Berserker for the Rages.)
Would also like to mention that having a full plate on you'll survive even better with Shield, Mirror Image and Blur. Blur is a +4 AC so it will bring your AC even higher, Mirror Image only gets removed when you're struck, so having a higher AC let's you keep them up longer. And Shield makes you immune to Magic Missile, the one spell that remove Mirror Images the fastest.
Anyway this is purely about opinion, as all of the different kits bring different things to the table, and it's up to you what you're playing with (Difficulty, SCS) and what you value higher. I'm a no reloader so I've always valued survivability (AC) very highly.
No-reload is a special case. You play very defensively there, even at the cost of damage. That's fine.
But as @SionIV says, even in SCS and full difficulty, spells are just better than armor, except perhaps in BG1 (which I personally don't care about, but acknowledge that some people do). Getting Shield, MI, Blur etc. requires practically no effort. And once you get SS etc. it's just icing on the cake.
Comments
Other than Shadowdancer and Wild Mage (...we aren't talking No Reload, right?), Assassin is probably the best, though it won't be the best for the very few enemies immune to poison/backstab I would say. Shadowdancer would probably be much better as a 2 way multi though, Shadowdancer/Mage, and abuse HiPS with casting for hilarity. Or just a dual class, that'd work swimmingly too. I am going way off topic here, aren't I?
Edit: I know in Vanilla BG2 Kensai with throwing daggers was very, very nasty, just wasn't sure if EE nerfed that little exploit.
Nearly everything you can add to this character makes her unreal. Not that she needs it, though ; )
If on the other hand SCS and no-reload are taken into consideration, then trading in some Kensai offense for some extra Swashbuckler defense could be worthwhile. (Though I'd probably go with Berserker for the Rages.)
Anyway this is purely about opinion, as all of the different kits bring different things to the table, and it's up to you what you're playing with (Difficulty, SCS) and what you value higher. I'm a no reloader so I've always valued survivability (AC) very highly.
But as @SionIV says, even in SCS and full difficulty, spells are just better than armor, except perhaps in BG1 (which I personally don't care about, but acknowledge that some people do). Getting Shield, MI, Blur etc. requires practically no effort. And once you get SS etc. it's just icing on the cake.