Should I make 6 characters. or can I finish the game with say only 4? I am wondering if I only make 4 will they advance much faster and be higher level at the end of the game. Just does not seem to be enough money to manage 6 players correctly. Any opinins?

I understand there are pros and cons - you are right, money is tight, but 6 can carry more stuff, especially if one is an elephant character. I read a thread in this forum where someone just played with one character throughout the entire game! I have six, but may just play again with one or two oddballs! Since most of the time they share experience points and seem to advance pretty evenally, I'm not sure if 4 would advance faster or not - but guilds are expensive. You could always try a new character or two and if it doesn't work out, just leave them at the inn.

I'm afraid I'm gonna have to disagree here. Playing with fewer characters might be interesting, but it certainly isn't an advantage. Your characters get the same experience no matter how many characters you have, and more characters means you can carry more items. Even if the ability to carry more items didn't make up for extra costs you incurred by maintaining six characters, you can always choose not to buy extra stuff for some of your characters. However, once you get into the game, you should be able to get a lot of gold, so character maintenance shouldn't be a problem.
--MisterDrgn

You're wrong Misterdrgn, The experience per monster is devided among party members, less members equals more exp per PC

yes, total experience is divided. Many monsters attack only one character, so fewer characters means more attacks per character. It is also better to divide the capabilities up and specialize ... more characters will advance faster and you don't lose so much if one character is disabled.

You will get enough money as the game goes on (don't buy any weapons and don't pay to identify anything).

Hmmm ... playing with one character is an interesting thought. You certainly would not need any rebirth spells, but in a big fight you might need to heal every turn and never get in any licks.

After playing the game the first time through with 6 characters, I now try it with only 3. (This means at first I had no thief, so I bashed open the chests. Now my fighter changed to barbarian (at lvl 5), and I go back to chests with traps of stony grave etc.) This is a lot more challenging, and I can't imagine I could play through with only one character (without cheating or using characters/items from my first party).
I have not calculated exactly, but my impression was I didn't get any more Xp per character then with my party of 6. I'm pretty sure I don't advance twice as fast as my previous party.

I had the most fun using just 1 character, that way you will have
more money to spend on his skills and such, it will be alittle harder in the begining
but very easy later on since you will level really quickly with only 1 char.
cycle through the diffrent classes in the beginning to get the useful skills and spells
then go for the class you really want to play.
(you can get to level 10 in the diffrent classes in no time once you hit the 2nd town, not worth going much higher)
I am in the skull castle now and he is a level 85 assassin doing very well.
Only problem is that you can only have a limit amount of equipment on one char,
but most of it is junk anyway, so get the artifact skill soon.

- Zarkas