Kensai?

[Joe_Kerr]

Anyone know what 2nd edition book the Kensai kit was in? I looked at the complete fighter handbook and didn't see it.

[Roland St. Jude]

Oriental Adventures I think. Or the Kara Tur Forgotten realms set.

[Ikkitosen]

The Kensai definitely appeared in OA. No armour and no magic weapons? Who cares! AC 23 - Dex score and bonuses with your weapon of choice. Plus many other abilities :)

[Roland St. Jude]

I don't remember much about the kensai, except that it was widely regarded as "broken" long before "broken" was the household word it is today. I think it was the broken class of 2E. (Which is actually what the OP is looking for, I think based on the thread where this originally came up.) :)

[Chris_Chandler]

The Kensai actually never was folded into 2e. OA was 1e (mid 80s), and then The Horde boxed set for FR brought in many of the Kara-Tur aspects, so gamers had to take it as a matter of course to simply bring the OA material as-was into their 2e campaign. FR splatbooks at the time took the monk back, but the Kensai was never really revisited. As a note, the Kensai was, indeed, one of the real masters of cheese.

[Hurlbut]

Kensai never revisited?
*Looks in the Complete Wariror just to be sure*
You're sure about that?

[Aribar]

Sorry, I'm a bit of a 'noob' when it comes to knowing the editions of D&D. 2nd and AD&D are the same, right? If so, try looking up a class guide the Kensai kit of the PC game Baldur's Gate. You could probably find some of the rules there... Of course, I'm not sure how much difference between the pen & paper game and the computer game there is.

[Thomas]

Sorry, I'm a bit of a 'noob' when it comes to knowing the editions of D&D. 2nd and AD&D are the same, right? If so, try looking up a class guide the Kensai kit of the PC game Baldur's Gate. You could probably find some of the rules there... Of course, I'm not sure how much difference between the pen & paper game and the computer game there is.

1st and 2nd edition are both AD&D. D&D used to mean the one prior to 1st ed. AD&D. For some reason, 3rd ed. dropped the Advanced.

It's BG2; BG1 didn't have kits. And the rules differ a lot between the actual game and the computer adaptations. (Critical hits? I think there was something in Combat & Tactics, but nothing like BG uses, that I noticed.)

There's no rules whatsoever in the BG2 manual, especially for the kits. There's some general descriptions of how, say, combat works, and that's it. Nothing like the Player's Guide. (Handbook? Which was the AD&D one called, again?)

[Tyas]

1st and 2nd edition are both AD&D. D&D used to mean the one prior to 1st ed. AD&D. For some reason, 3rd ed. dropped the Advanced.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons to distinguish it originally from the white box game (which was essentially the 0th edition, or to use WotC CCG parlance, Beta Edition), and from then on to seperate it from the basic/expert/master/comendium/legends/we are uber series of books. ('thin red book' or 'thin blue book' D&D they were called when I was a wee lad.)

Nothing like the Player's Guide. (Handbook? Which was the AD&D one called, again?)

Player's Handbook

[MrNexx]

Kensai never revisited?
*Looks in the Complete Wariror just to be sure*
You're sure about that?

In 2nd edition, it wasn't to my knowledge.

[Chris_Chandler]

In 2nd edition, it wasn't to my knowledge.

That's right. Got my back.

[terrashand]

Kensai is in Dragon Mag #189

[Accolon]

I don't know where it is in 2E, but it has reappeared in 3.5 in the Complete Warrior.

[Dhavaer]

Is this as big a Thread Necro as it looks, or am I missing something?

[Holocron Coder]

The Kensai is in Complete Warrior. I have the book myself and just checked :)

[Nerd-o-rama]

It's thread necromancy, and is irrelevant to the original topic.

[Cyborg Pirate]

AAAARRRRIIIIIIISSSEEEE!!!!!

...Oh... am I too late for the ritual?



Little side question, since this thread is all back from the dead and all. I have BGII on my pc waiting to be played, and I've always wanted to try out a kensai, but I was worried about getting hurt a lot because of the no-armor thing. Anyone know a site with some infor on playing the BGII kensai or can someone give me some pointers? (pm would be great if the answers are a no-no for massive off-topicness)

[Zincorium]

AAAARRRRIIIIIIISSSEEEE!!!!!

...Oh... am I too late for the ritual?



Little side question, since this thread is all back from the dead and all. I have BGII on my pc waiting to be played, and I've always wanted to try out a kensai, but I was worried about getting hurt a lot because of the no-armor thing. Anyone know a site with some infor on playing the BGII kensai or can someone give me some pointers? (pm would be great if the answers are a no-no for massive off-topicness)

Heck, the thread has been successfully animated regardless, so I figure why not.

Kensai in BG 2 never worked all that well, having attempted to play one several times, unless you rapidly dual-class out of it to thief. As it is, that no armor thing hurts your AC a lot, especially since you can't wear bracers of AC either. Remember, this is 2nd ed, you apply your full dex bonus to AC no matter what you're wearing, so a loss of the ability to wear armor is up to a -13 penalty (armor of the hart) over the course of the game, and your initial bonus doesn't increase unlike the swashbuckler's.

Yes, you're fast and you're a melee monster, but the monsters tend to do a lot more damage than you no matter where you go, the only way to really save yourself from dying is a an entire party dedicated to supporting your main and keeping them alive, which is a pain and keeps them from being quite as useful in other areas.

Berserker is the only fighter kit that doesn't end up hurting you more than it helps, although I can see wizard slayer having a few uses. In general, not worth it though.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Kensai's are a great dual-class base in BG2, but rather glass-cannonish solo. Not good for a melee-only class.

Kensai/Thief punches up your damage even further with backstab and gives you Hide in Shadows so you don't get WTFpwned by new groups of enemies as they spot you. However, the best dual-class is Mage, because you get access to all the Mage's sweet defensive spells like Stoneskin and Spirit Armor, thus making your Kensai/Mage as well-defended (or better) than your plate armor tanks, as well as combining two of the best damage classes in the game. Not to mention the fact that you usually want two mages in your party for boss fights anyway. K/M is arguably the strongest class combination in the game, to the point of cheese.

Pretty much the ultimate guide to BG2 character classes.

[Roland St. Jude]

Sheriff of Moddingham: Please don't bring back threads that are more than six weeks old and below page three. We consider it "thread necromancy" and frown on it. See the Rules of Posting for this and similar rules. Thanks.