Man are all you guys nuts? !NO OFFENSE!

1 of the best guys in the game is a monk (human). then you got what's his name the chaotic evil Dwarf fight dude from the copper correnet. with this you also create a sorcerer, pick up Viconia yoshimo or a good user created assasin/ any good thief really fighter/thief being best choice probably. Plus a mage/cleric. At least it kicked ass for me I mean I left D'arnise keep until after the underdark. But even then my monk unarmed shouldn't have been able to take out all the golems 1 at a time by himelf. Plus viconia is like the perfect undead killer and pretty good at killing most other creatures. Undead though are mostly what u face. You of course need a thief you don't want to lose valuable xp on not disarming traps, and the ability to set traps which is greatly overlooked by most. and assasins basically kill mages with their poisened weapons the mages and clerics and anything else can't cast any spells till poison wheres off. The sorcere well you just have to have one of these guys! Mage cleric backs you up. and your chaotic evil short fighter dude really kicks ass.

many more reasons to go with this party but not enough time to list them you see a problem with it however and i will try to defend my choice [img]smile.gif[/img]

There is no perfect answer to such a question - the party that is best for you is the one you have most fun playing with.

Like some others, I did not like the weaknesses of the NPCs and built my own party. I also get SOOOO annoyed when magic casters can't get their best spells off because they are being clobbered by arrows and swords so I went with only one mage.

I disagree with Warby about the thief - hiding in shadows to allow my mage to fireball into a room of bad guys is a great tactic. My thief is also awsome in melee with two swords equipped and makes great use of the magic bow with an unlimited supply of electric arrows. Later in the game she got the ability to use any item and is happily supplementing the mage by using scrolls and wands. The assassination ability is also good and my thief is a Bounty Hunter so I can set lots of traps.

I agree with SixofSpades that the party must have an Undead Hunter - you save an awful lot of time not having to go to temples to restore drained levels.

I prefer to be able to rise in levels quickly and be unlimited in levels so my party has no dualled characters. This also increases saving throws quickly which really helps! I also prefer to hack things up rather than take a chance that my magic will be countered so my party is:

Human Paladin - Undead Hunter
Human Paladin - Cavalier [only one I would reconsider]
Dwarf Cleric
Elven Ranger
Elven Mage
Half Elf Thief

It seems to work - many battles that others reported as tough I hacked through with little problem.

Best thing about these games - you can do another round with a different party and have just as much fun!

If this is your first (or second) run-through, I'd suggest staying with as many party NPCs as possible.

First, several bring their own quests into the group, including Mazzy, Korgan, and Edwin.

Second, quite a few have special items and/or abilities you can't duplicate without access to an editing program. Edwin's got a family necklace which gives him more spells per level than any comparable mage in the game. Valygar's got some fine armor. Haer'dalis has two swords with some decent extra effects.

Third, they have some great dialog and interactions which really make them come alive. That last does it for me. :D

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Jim Wingert:
....many battles that others reported as tough I hacked through with little problem.<hr></blockquote>

I think that'll be the case for ANY party made up of 6 PCs.... If the game can (presumably) be beaten by parties that include losers like Cernd, it should be a walk in the park taking everything out with a 100% user-created party. I have 2 questions about your party, though: Why is your Thief a Half-Elf? And is your Ranger a kit, or a straight Ranger? I'd have gone with Archer, myself--you've already got 3 Tanks, you don't really need a 4th.

As for the NPCs vs. PCs debate, fable, I'm going to play my first game using the 6 PCs I created to be my definitive Team Kickass. (How well they do will let me know if my ideas were correct.) Once I've beaten the game with GREAT characters, I'll use the NPCs and see how I do with DECENT characters, and get some funny interactions to boot. (Too bad you can't stick the NPCs into your Bag of Holding--that way, you could essentially have 8 people in your party, just kick one out & put them in the Bag when you need to swap someone else in. [img]smile.gif[/img] )

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Warby:

Cavalier
Half-orc Barbarian
Cleric of Lathanda
Avenger or whatever you want.
Mage/thief
Mage

Warby<hr></blockquote>

LOL, substitute the Half-Orc Barbarian with a Half-Orc Berserker and that's the exact same party as I'm going through the game with right now. And they rock, too.

As for the PERFECT party, that's different for everyone. Depends too much on playing style to give good advice about, IMHO. If you're melee-oriented you need lots of warriors, if you're partial to spellcasting then tune down on the warriors and get an extra Mage. Undead Hunters are handy, but by no means necessary. Priests of Lathander kick @$$ against vampires too with their Boon of Lathander, and with the Mace of Disruption or Azuredge you can turn every warrior into an Undead Hunter.