D&D 3E/3.5 Is Kensai 3.5 around?

[Eman Resu]

Having a dicussion of possible builds for upcoming campaign, and a player mentioned a possible Soulknife/Kensai combo that actually sounded kinda cool.

My question is could a Kensai imbue his mindblade and would the 2 class bonuses stack? Furthermore what about adding on soulbow, that class says all bonuses/magics and feats applied to mindblade tranfer to mindarrow with no penalty and viceaversa.

Eman Resu

 

[Shazman]

I suppose they would stack, but you might want to check with the DM. Since the main point of the kensei PrC is to enhance his favored weapon, and the soulknife already does this, I'd probably just stick with soulknife.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

They can and do stack. As I recall, the first reason to do so would be that the Soulknife's selection of potential enhancements is more limited than the Kensai's. The second would be that beefy +8Str (potentially) reusable untyped bonus the Kensai gets.

 

[Dandu]

I'd probably just stick with soulknife.

Kensai is an average PrC. Soulknife is a below average class. Think about that for a moment and come to the logical conclusion.

I advise the OP to open his Complete Warrior and turn to the Kensai page with all due haste.

 

[BENINHB]

There is some synergy between the classes and their use of Concentration checks. The extra uses of the +8 Str bonus from the Kensai is based on a Concentration check and so is gaining Psionic Focus which is key to a lot of the psionic feats.

Psionic Meditation allows you to gain focus as a move action instead of a full round action. Pair that with feats like Psionic Weapon, Deep Impact and Wounding Strike and class features like Psychic Strike and the weapon enhancements from Soulknife and Kensai and you can stack a lot onto your weapon.

 

[BENINHB]

I almost forgot that at 5th level a Kensai can replace a reflex save with a Concentration check.

 

[Uber Dungeon]

Personally I think Kensai is a wast of a good level,
Signature weapon; is a wast because you could just buy a good weapon rather then using levels to get it.
Power surge; is cool, I'm not dissing it
All the other ability's are non-scenes and you lose 3 BAB for taking a class with a medium BAB progression. With I would say you couldn't afford dew to soulkinf's low BAB.
What I would do personally with soulKnife is
Race Strongheart Halfling (lose save bonus gain 1st level bonus feat)
Get feats; Point-Blank Shot 1st lv, Two-Weapon
Fighting 1st lv, Weapon finesse 3rd lv, Quick Draw 6th lv
1st level 1 SoulKnife
2nd level 1 Rouge for Sneak attack
3rd level 2 SoulKnife For Mind Throw
4th level 3 SoulKnife
5th level 4 SoulKnife
6th level 5 SoulKnife (Your DM may rule that "Free Draw" can substitute for Quick draw as it is the same thing. in witch case you would not have to take Quick Draw on 6th level and may consider taking lv2 rouge for 6th level and Quick Draw, it will increase the over all BAB but you would lose "Shape mind Blade" witch you may not need anyways.)
7th + levels Whisper Knife from Races of the wild.

This class has a full BAB progression and Rapid Shot that is applicable to thrown weapons is worth it 1d4 (psy Short sword) + 1d6 sneak attack + 1d8 Psychic Strike. (I'm not to clear on the sneak attack rules, I believe you can sneak attack with a short sword, but if not I believe you can just make them into daggers at will or something)
Also you duel wield thrown weapons and if I'm not mistaken you can throw 2 psy short swords at 3rd level from a 30ft. distance.
But yeah, you should look up Whisper Knife

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Signature weapon; is a wast because you could just buy a good weapon rather then using levels to get it.

A Kensai's weapon "must be of at least masterwork quality" (CW p50) if manufactured- that means he can choose and enhance weapons of better than masterwork quality as a signature weapon. IOW, he could get a Vorpal sword and make it a Flaming Lightning Throwing Returning Vorpal Sword if he had the levels to do so.

 

[Eman Resu]

His build is gestalt, many of you have probably heard of it before, Im joining their game group (again). They have recently, last 2 yrs or so, gone gestalt, and havent looked back, all campaigns are gestalt now. For me it removes the decision making, the concept(ualizing) the min/max and pc flavor we all must balance. With gestalt pc's theres less risk/reward, less gambling on the sacrifice of this for that. But for this , they say its "radical" "cool" "wish we started gestalting earlier" "awesome"

Im new to it, this will be my first gestalt pc, so I was asking them questions about it, hence his build came up. Now back to his Kensai/Soulknife build. He said a few things about the pc. Soulbow, he says, stacks as well and the interesting part now is everything on the mindblade goes to his mind arow and viceversa. So how does that apply to Kensai, or Kensai to that?

we the players must turn in a skeletal build for 5th,10 and 15th level and the DM will decide where we start. I have to admit its kinda fun making the same PC but finding myself at odds at the different choices made for 5th 10th and 15th.

Eman Resu

 

[BENINHB]

What books are allowed??