having just fninished a solo sorcerer run I was wondering the viability of running a solo kensai through BG1 EE with the goal of going Kensai mage.

Without the aid of a lot of gear and being able to cheese enemies with ranged weapons how exactly do you use Kensai's? Its hard enough taking down a black bear. Any tips?

Potions will help quite a bit. And wands once you Dual to Mage.

In the meantime how do you protect yourself against status attacks from things like carrion crawlers/ghasts, vampiric wolves and the like?

Powerword: Reload.

Greenstone amulet. That thing is a god send. It also protects against charm and confusion. It's sold in Ulgoth's Beard. Remember to recharge it when you can. You can recharge items by selling them to a vendor and buying it back.

Makes sense. Since the vendor is also.....charging you again for its purchase ;)