KENSAI THIEF, Baldur's Gate 2

Kensai Thief BG2

Kensai Thief Build

Kensai Thief is a Baldur's Gate build in BioWare's cRPG of 2000, Baldur's Gate 2. In a nutshell, Kensai Thief dual-class builds pair the martial prowess of Kensai BG2 with the utility of Thief BG2.

We can dual-class Kensai into Thief at level 7, 9, 13 or 21. cf. Kensai 21 dual. This particular Kensai duals at level 13 and reaches 39th level Thief, making it very powerful without increasing its dual-downtime too much (because Thief level progression is cheaper than Mage level progression in the Kensage).

Kensai Thieves are fighters, trappers, scouts and backstabbers. They can OHKO things with kai-charged backstabs. 

Mode of operation is as follows: stealth in, find our target, activate Kai modal, click on enemy. *Chunk*. Something just died. We like that. Rinse repeat.

However, once Use Any Item BG2 is gained, utility and combat versatility of this build is increased greatly. We become capable of sustained tanking (Best Armor Class BG2), we become capable of maximum ApR BG2 for strong physical-based damage dealing, we become expert at setting Spike Trap BG2, and we are able to cast BG2 Best Spells from scrolls.

Kensai Thief Dual-class Guide

Obvious 13th level warrior perks aside [1], 12 Kensai levels grant THAC0 +4/dmg +4 as well as four uses of Kai for maximum weapon damage roll, at-will. Thus, in wielding a katana, that 1d10 range becomes 10 flat. 

The difference between WDR of 1 and 10 becomes attractive to Thieves when we consider that WDR is multiplied by the backstab modifier, maxing out at x5 for non-Assassin BG2. These I call kai-charged backstabs. The acute damage that results means that almost anything not immune to backstab will be chunked in one hit. Such an opener noticeably reduces the difficulty and duration of some battles, especially ones headed up by unprotected spellcasters.

The innate weapon speed factor increases of the Kensai represent a cool perk, too, in that they allow us to almost always strike first. This is good for spellcaster disruption. Also, if that first hit happens to be a kai-crit, then it can devastate even a tanky rival immediately.

In addition, 39 Thief levels grant us more skill-points than we know what to do with. Eventually, Use Any Item BG2 greatly increases this build's versatility and tanking power in that it enables us to bypass the strict item restrictions of the Kensai. The boss-killing Spike Trap BG2 is incredibly powerful. In fact, it's cheesy -- cringeworthy, even -- since there are not many boss encounters that disallow the presetting of several Spike Traps.

[1] THAC0 +13 from warrior levels; THAC0 +1, dmg +2, ApR +½ from Specialization; ApR +1 from warrior 7th and 13th; full warrior HD from 9 warrior levels.

Kensai Thief XP Cost

The XP costs is 1,250,000 for Kensai 13th, 880,000 in downtime for Thief 14th and 6,750,000 for Thief 39th.

Kensai Thief Chargen

Must be Human. Cannot be Chaotic or Lawful Good. Must have at least 15 Strength and 17 Dexterity. 

Recommended stats: 18/91-18-18-13-dump-dump (Imports are 19-19-19-13-dump-dump).

Kensai Thief Weapon Proficiency

Specialization in Katana, Specialization in Quarterstaff, Proficiency in Single Weapon Style and Specialization in Two Weapon Style for dual-wield BG2.

Note that Grandmastery BG2 is nerfed. For the price of GM we can get Specialization in another weapon and Proficiency in yet another.

Kensai Thief Leveling

Work from Kensai 7th to 13th. Recommend Proficiency in Two-Handed Weapon Style at Kensai 9th and then Specialization in Two-Weapon Style at Kensai 12th. Dual at Kensai 13th and work to Thief 14th. Set Traps, Find Traps and Detect Illusions are the best Thief skills. Max them. HLAs come at Thief 24th or 3,080,000 XP. First choice recommendation is obviously Use Any Item (UAI) followed by Spike Trap and Assassinate.

Kensai Thief Weapon Progression

Wield Celestial Fury BG2 katana in Shadows of Amn and then wield Staff of the Ram BG2 in Throne of Bhaal. These are the best weapons in the Bhaalspawn Saga for backstabbing purposes.

Belm BG2 or Crom Faeyr BG2 are wielded off-hand for ApR +2 or ApR +1 and Titan Strength (25 Str). 

Blackrazor BG2 can also get us to 25 (temp. on-hand), and Foebane BG2 is another option though we can't backstab with bastard swords.

Note that Kensai can erroneously wield Azuredge Axe from range, pre-UAI. When such are wielded a shield such as Shield of Harmony BG2 may be held, off-hand (post-UAI only).

Kensai Thief in ranged beast-mode, wielding K'logorath BG2 throwing axe (8 ApR):

Kensai Thief Item Progression

Pre- Use Any Item BG2, Kensai cannot use armor, gauntlets, shields or helms (though they can wear Ioun stones and quest helms for crit protection). Recommend the Spirit Armor buff for Plate Mail AC, pre-UAI. Recommend the Cloak of Non-Detection to ensure conventional stealth is not broken by enemy divinations such as True Sight [CLCK06]. Post-UAI, mix and match equipment without limit. Most notably, UAI results in non-trivial tanking and ApR boosts.

First, there is a boost to tanking physical-based attacks, because we can now wear armor up to and including White Dragon Scale which (erroneously) does not disable conventional stealth.

Second, there is a boost to tanking spells in that Carsomyr BG2 magic resistance is stackable MR. Read about how to stack magic resistance BG2.

Third, there is a boost to ApR BG2 in that we can now wear Gauntlets of Extraordinary Specialization.

You may also like to wear Montolio's Cloak and the Amulet of the Master Harper for their AC bonuses [CLCK32, AMUL28].

UAI also opens up the casting of BG2 Best Spells from scrolls some of which are offered by merchants in infinite quantities. The first level conjuration, Find Familiar, bestows a one-off and permanent HP bonus equal to 50% of the familiar's HPs. A Pseudo Dragon, for example, grants +12 HPs if summoned in SoA and +24 HPs if summoned in ToB.

Kensai Thief HLAs

Use Any Item and Set Spike Traps are not only the best HLAs for this build, but they are also two of the best HLAs in the game. Recommend multiple Spike Traps. Illusion-based exploits aside, note that seven is the max number of traps that can be set in a given area - but that's all we need.

Baldur's Gate 2 Walkthrough Guide

BG2 Best Classes	Fighter Mage BG2	Kensai Mage BG2	Fighter Mage Cleric BG2
Baldur's Gate 2 (Index)	Berserker Druid BG2	Kensai Thief BG2	Fighter Mage Thief BG2
Archer Cleric dual-class	Ranger Cleric dual-class	Cleric Ranger multi-class	Fighter Cleric multi-class