6 chars
great range attacks
good melee
good magic
very easy party to use
no need for buff spells all the time
easy beginning
easy middle game
easy end

1) Swashbuckler(15)/mage - daggers++, quarterstaff++
2) Ranger(13)/cleric - flail++, mace++, sword & shieldstyle++, sling++
3) Totemic druid(14)/fighter - scimitar, club, sword & shieldstyle and sling. As a totemic druid only dart and scimitar.
4) Wizard slayer(13)/thief - short bow, quarter staff, two handed weapons.
5) Skald - short bow, scimitar
6) Keldorn - two handed sword++, crossbow++, later two handed weaponstyle++

Totemic druid makes the beginning easy with fodders. Keldorn dispels magic when party is confused or when mages have protection from magical weapons etc. Keldorn can also use Carsomyr. Wizard slayer reduces magic resistance on enemies which allows the skald and mage to kill them more easily. Mostly Keldorn and wizardslayer/thief will use ranged attacks because they don't have stoneskin or ironskin. Skald will play music in tough fights to prevent confusion, fear, and add a nice bonus to AC. Ranger/cleric is the only char with cleric spells that can be much needed in some situations, for example to remove stun effects.

So I will have two characters to take the hits (ranger/cleric and druid/fighter), the rest will be in the back shooting arrows, quarrels or throwing daggers. If needed, the wizardslayer/thief and Keldorn can help out with melee. Later in the game, the wizardslayer/thief will have some nice backstabbing to do. Most of the times, monsters will just fall to ranged attacks.

The swashbuckler will dual before the wizardslayer, but only for a few thousand experience points. So there will be a period without thieving skills. Also, the druid and ranger will dual at the same time, so Keldorn will be the only char with decent fighting skill. Of course, since the druid duals into a fighter, he will become quite good fast. With Keldorn being an NPC, I can do NPC quests like a few of Jaheira's harper quest to get the items I want.

That actually is quite a good party. Truth be told, I've been partial to dual classing characters... If bioware made 'em a thief, I'm keepin them that way...

But that's just my personal bias.

It would be boring as hell though. Perfect parties kinda bore me. No challenge really.

Yeah. Kind of like Shadowkeepering yourself infinite Chain Contingencies with Three AlbiDazims at the nearest enemy... fun for awhile, but got boring.

Hah! I'll see how good it really is. So far they haven't died. You see, it's my ironman game. I've done several ironman games before but always died somewhere, and told myself it was just sloppiness and continued, but then I stop because I know I have cheated death which is against the (ironman) rules. So I've been looking for a perfect party so that I can finish the game and ToB tower without dying once and preferably going through the beginning and middle game as fast as possible. Then and only then I can rest in peace.

Good thing about this party as opposed to magical parties is that I can leave them on auto script most of the times. Areas which were tough before are now a walk in the park. And best of all, the party is not timeconsuming. I don't have to prepare for spellcombination after spellcombination to make them kill most efficiently. Been there done that, now it's time for something different like my "Perfect Party".

El_kalkylus, that is indeed a strong party, but you seem light on Wizard spells (your Swashbuckler->Mage is the only one, although the Wizard Slayer->Thief can use scrolls & Wands), and overly heavy on Priest spells: The Totemic->Fighter Dual is a strong one (although I myself would wait until I had a few Druid HLAs), but when offset by the Ranger->Cleric, completely redundant.

Hmm....my criteria are somewhat different:

The Tank is a HELLA Tank
Everybody but the Tank has some spellcasting power
Everybody but the Tank has good range attack
Everybody's a Warrior
All Thieving skills (except Pockets) are covered ASAP
Both sides of the Priest scroll are covered
At least 1.5 Wizards
Weapon proficiencies spread out and consistent
Somebody can use Carsomyr

With that in mind, I'd say that the perfect party is:
Halfling Fighter/Thief (Tank in BG2, Backup Tank in early BG1)
Half-Elf Ranger/Cleric (Tank in early BG1, Backup Tank in BG2)
Elven Fighter/Mage
Gnomish Fighter/Illusionist
Elven Fighter/Thief/Mage
Half-Elf Fighter/Cleric/Mage

In BG1, when the game is ruled by Fighters, these guys can wear Plate and Helmets, and shoot lots & lots of Arrows. In SoA, when the game is ruled by spellcasters and Saving Throws, these guys have got spellpower up the wazoo--and Halfling Fighters have the exact same Saves as Dwarven Fighters. In ToB, when the game is ruled by Multiclasses, especially Multiclassed Warriors, well....you can see for yourself. True, it's likely that the two tripleclassed Mages will never be able to cast Time Stop, so either one of them can be regarded as (temporarily) optional in BG2, if having two TimeStop-capable Fighters is not enough for you.

SixOfSpades, I see your points. You said I have too many priests spells. That may be, but what I really want is their fighting abilities and ironskin, and of course chaotic command. The totemic druid makes the beginning so much easier that I wouldn't like to be without him. And since the druid doesn't have cleric spells, I also want a ranger/cleric. Pretty much that's how I reason. I can imagine making a fighter/mage and let it run around with tenser transformation active all the time and kicking butt too. That would be one nice monster absorber. My problem with your kind of party though is that it would take too long to play with. The bard can identify everything, otherwise I would have to pay to get them items identified or use spells, and preparing for each night would take longer. The multiclassed chars also levelup slowly.

The thing about humans is that they get bonuses from previous classes. Come to think of it, it was probably a bad idea to make the ranger/cleric a human since I don't take any advantage of the rangers kit and dualling into a fighter is better than dualling into a cleric, so a multiclassed ranger/cleric is probably the better choice. The drawback is that the half-elf ranger/cleric cannot put 3 proficiency points into two weaponstyle, but that doesn't matter since it should use a shield anyway.

The party tried to kill the shadowdragon just now, but failed. One char was lost, so I'm gonna start over again. This time with a few small changes. Wzardslayer will be a kensai instead with grandmastery in daggers, and ranger/cleric will be a half-elf. The ranger/cleric will be the main tank in the beginning, almost alone followed by Keldorn and totemic druid.

Why do you need Keldorn? You could just as easily make your own inquisitor, with a better dex, con, etc.

Okay, that all makes sense, I just don't think that having some really good free summons early in the game is enough to justify that much change to your final party makeup. In long-endurance fights later in the game, I think you're really going to be hurting if you only have 1 Wizard's spellbook to use.

The slower level gain is of course the price one pays for going multiclass--but I think the only thing I'm really going to mind is having to wait twice as long before anybody can cast Time Stop. But when I think about the number of Greater Whirlwinds and the like this crew will be able to unleash per day, I get all tingly. :D

Yes, they can. My R/C, F/M, and F/I will be Dual-wielders, my F/T/M and F/C/M will be Two-Handers, and my F/T will be Sword & Shield.

I know how you feel. I felt like such an idiot when I let my F/T get trapped. Now I have to roll stats for them all over again. Good luck with your crew!

I always play the game in multi-player so if I loose a character by some stupid mystake I can rebuild him
and replace him rather then start the game all over.
Then again I'm a firm believer in the gate keepers and to many they consider this cheating.
I completed the whole series at least 8 times from
BG then Tales of the swordcoast then shadows & Bhaal
long befor ever using the keepers.
But I commend you for starting the whole game over only thing That I do different is that I start at
BG 1 every time I play the series so that BG 2 has a reason to begin.

Either that, or just give Carsomyr to your Bard (assuming you have ToB).

BTW, it's a nice party, and maybe it's perfect for you, but I think others will come up with parties better for themselves.

A bard weilding Carsomyr... oooooohhh...

They've made it through SoA now. The party members complement each other nicely. Party consists of (after the few small changes I made)

Swashbuckler(15)/mage
Skald
Keldorn
Multiclassed ranger/cleric.
Kensai(13)/thief - dagger+++++, quarterstaff+++.
Totemic druid(17)/fighter

They didn't die once. I chose the fights well. For example, I killed the dragons after underdark this time and the dragons fell very quickly. Not much buffing needed. Now I'll see how they do in ToB.

By the way, I chose to have Keldorn in the party so that I could do some NPC quests. With 6 party members that you create yourself, you cannot leave one of them and come back for him/her later. And Keldorn is not so bad. He uses a bracer of dexterity that I got from the first quest to raise dexterity to 18, and a girdle of giant strength to raise strength to 19. He also uses Carsomyr and wears rings and boots and helmet that makes his resistance pretty nice. He can walk right to a mage without me having to worry much if he'll get killed by magic. It works, so why not?

Two priests are convenient I think. No need to rest as much, and not much need for healing potions either. The party is packed with healing spells and protective spells to make fighting easier. I like protection from fire that the bard and mage can cast, so I have chosen plenty of picks for that spell for example. The offensive magic have almost been non-existant. Sure, they cast a few magic missiles and emotion spells every now and then. I'm guessing ToB will change that.

Time to go kill some vampires.

Spoiler alert! Spoilers about ToB below:


Now, they've managed to go all the way to Demigorgon and kill him. It took alot of traps and some buffing. The dragons they encountered were pushovers, but I had a few deaths at other places. For example vs some mindflayers and some invisible creatures guarding chests that cast acid. But no problem, I just resurrect and continue. It's a little annoying to pick up all the stuff the dead character had dropped though. My ranger/cleric who is the target of all monsters have died the most.

Mages are not so tough either. Keldorn just walk up to them and dispel their magic with Carsomyr, and the kensai/thief and druid/fighter kill it fast with ranged attack. Keldorn can summon devas too. So if I want, I can make the monsters target anybody but my party members, and comfortably kill them all with ranged attacks. The really tough fights are not so tough when you lay loads of traps. I am a little uncomfortable to sleep all the time before most spells have been used though, so they are not always as powerful as they could be.

My kensai/thief can now wear any items she pleases. This means I have another magekiller at my disposal. I give her staff of cheese when mages are around, but not for free invisibility. Swashbuckler/thief always keeps way back of the line and hurls a +2 dagger or cast a few abidalzims when needed.

They just killed Yagashura the giant and druid/fighter still haven't gotten his druid skills back. I'll have to wait another 5 levels. That could take some time. At least he is excellent with his sling+++++ and sometimes scimitar+++.

The party got killed in the final battle in ToB. It was a bad mistake. So I had to start the game over from scratch again (Bg2-SoA).

This time I decided to have 5 good ranged attackers and 1 dualwielder. I ended up with this party:

EVIL Kensai(13)/Mage - Main character
Dualwielding Katana, Longsword and Scimitar. No ranged attacks. By taking the evil route, his stats and hp increases to make him able to take more hits and deal more damage. Natural super roll:
Str 18/35
Dex 18
Con 18
Int 18
Wis 16
Cha 3

EVIL Kensai(9)/Mage
Staying in the back throwing a +3 knife from underdark and casting spells.

GOOD Half-elf Ranger/Cleric
Uses sling and flail mostly. She helped the main character to block the monsters from reaching the rest of the party at times.

NEUTRAL Half-orc Fighter/Thief
Uses longbow or shortbow and staff of magi. Does not backstab much since I don't want to put him in the middle of the battle.

EVIL Dwarven Kensai
Hammer-thrower. He almost always hits its targets and do alot of damage. Highly useful and hardly ever engages in melee combat.

NPC - Keldorn
Mainly because of his true sight ability and that he can use Carsomyr. He is also very useful, especially versus mages.

With this party I finished both SoA and ToB without any reloads. It took some patience, but what I liked the most about this party was that it was so smooth to play with. All monsters attack the main character and the ranger/cleric while the rest stay back and do alot of damage with their ranged weapons, especially the pure Kensai. I didn't need to buff my ranged attackers. They would not become the targets anyway, so I only had 2 characters to cast protective magic on (main char and cleric/ranger), at least most of the times. I did not use Shadowkeeper at all or any other cheats. I don't think I used any exploits either, perhaps just a little. So I am happy I finally made it through without any deaths or reloads. And I think this mixture of party member really is the best I've ever had, which works in practice and theory.

I can't help feeling that your party is far too magic light and kensai heavy.

For a balanced party, I'd go for something like

Ranger/Cleric - finesse tank
Berserker - non-finesse tank
Sorcerer - god of magic
Cleric/Mage - god of cheese
Fighter/thief - scout and mage-splatterer
Skuld - to give everyone else the benefits of a nice song-song while they're fighting

Andraste, The problem I have with alot of magic in the party is that it takes so long to choose spells, to scribe scrolls, and to finally cast them. I've been running a magic heavy party before, and it was fun at first, but now I've played the game so much that I just wanted to get through it as fast as possible (real time) with as much power as possible, and without dying (on highest difficulty level).

I don't know about magic light though. I think my party had enough magic for every situation. In ToB, they also get the special ability 'greater whirlwind'. I had 4 fighter types who could cast greater whirlwind and beat on the enemies, so you can imagine the damage they do. Especially the dwarven kensai was a good damage dealer.

Here is is statistics from my final save in ToB:
Main char (dualwielder) - 495 kills
Ranger/Cleric - 414 kills
Kensai(9)/Mage - 379 kills
Fighter/Thief - 254 kills
Kensai - 425 kills
Keldorn - 173 kills

My rangers were not so weak that they couldn't handle melee range if such situations appeared, especially since the monsters were already half dead once they got there. I let all ranged attackers attack one monster at a time. It was almost like pressing Ctrl-y (instant kill) on each monsters when I chose my targets.

Mage/Cleric -> Time stop -> harm (remember it's auto strike) -> hit with anything. You don't get a lot quicker.

But Mage/cleric doesn't have endless supply of timestop. Besides, my mages can also cast timestop and hit dragons. Abazigal, the dragon form, died by one timestop and a breach spell and blackrazor for example. Quick and easy.

You mentioned under your Fighter/Thief that he used longbows and short bows. By the end of the game, which was being used more? Clearly short bows in SoA have the advantage, but I'll admit to never having really taken a good look at the long bows available in the late stages.

True_Moose,
I used Taralash bow sometimes to make him run faster. He does more damage with Gesen's bow than any other bow I know. I like the electrical damage that pierce through any stoneskin, so he used Gesen bow the most. The number of attacks doesn't really matter in ToB when you have 'Greater whirlwind', so he didn't use Tuigan bow in ToB.

He did more damage using +2 arrow AND use Gesen's bow instead of only using Gesen's bow without arrows.

[ 03-04-2006, 06:03 AM: Message edited by: el_kalkylus ]

Technically, a natural roll is taking the stats exactly the way they come out of the randomizer: You can hit Reroll as many times as you want, but you can't use the + or - buttons to drag your Charisma down to rock bottom and dump all those points into your other stats.

Just for the record, Keldorn has no special special abilities. Just the plain abilities of the Inquisitor. By making your own inquisitor character, you could boost the dex, thus creating a free bracer slot, and get a better con than keldorn.

Just my 2 cents, though.

OK, SixOfSpade.

Kyrvias, I already knew that. I just wanted 1 NPC slot so that I could do some more quests. I don't see it as a big of a deal anyway since he stayed with the ranged group firing arrows most of the times.

[ 03-06-2006, 11:58 AM: Message edited by: el_kalkylus ]