I searched this topic up, and didn't find any threads based on this, so I hope this question hasn't been asked before...

I'm curious to know how may party member you generally play with, and why?

I prefer 5, because a 6th member is usually redundant (as in, I have all duties fufilled by 5, such as tank, healer, thief, etc). Also, 5 generally gives enough banter and such as to entertain me. I can usually go for 4, since 4 is enough to cover all necessary facets of gameplay, and also because with 4 members the experience isn't divided up too much.


AND also. I have a question about experience and leveling: in general, with a 5-to-6 member party, is it possible to get into high enough levels with all of your characters so that all of them have atleast one High-Level ability in Throne of Bhaal? And will mages generally have access to 9th level spells? What is the level comparisons between a group of 6, and a group of 4, who have both done all the quests in the game and play completely through Throne of Bhaal? Will the members of the group of 4 have significantly higher levels?

I almost always play a party of 6, and they're usually around 4 million EXP apiece before I move on to any ToB areas. But I'm an EXP junkie and I know how to pretty much milk the game dry, so other peoples' totals may be less (and some may be more, for example I don't cheese by scribing spells over & over, etc.).

So you have High-Level Abilities before you even get into Throne of Bhaal?

a group of 4 will have slightly higher level's that a groupe of 6..

I find there's more than enough XP in SoA to get High level ablitys before starting ToB, and if one of my party members is lacking I just head to watcher keep before I finish SoA..

The exp difference from 6 to 5 doesnt really warrant the extra person you're missing imho (see table below) and the extra fighter/spellcaster/healer/amusement is definetly worth it, in games without interaction (icewind dale) I limit my party, but in BG I always go for the full six. (also because some quests give exp to each person, so the more people you have the more exp gets given)

Table of increase in exp with lower party size:

<table border = "1"><tr><td>Party size</td><td>Exp gain (each)</td></tr><tr><td><P align="center">6</p></td><td><P align="right">0 %</p></td></tr><tr><td><P align="center">5</p></td><td><P align="right">20 %</p></td></tr><tr><td><P align="center">4</p></td><td><P align="right">50 %</p></td></tr><tr><td><P align="center">3</p></td><td><P align="right">100 %</p></td></tr><tr><td><P align="center">2</p></td><td><P align="right">200 %</p></td></tr><tr><td><P align="center">1</p></td><td><P align="right">500 %</p></td></tr></table>(formula is 6/partySize)

Anyways, even with six, by the end of SoA most party members are around level 25 (might be a lvl or two lower, it has been a while)

Well, i normally play with only 1 character...I've been soloing for quite a while and have played just about every class there is. The last time i used a party was...

Usually play with 6, but I'm soloing atm, with tactics, and finding it hard but fun :D

I like playing with 6. I started soloing and all but I didn't like it very much. It just feels so empty and since i haven't seen everything yet I'd just as well play with a party. Also I can still set the difficulty higher.

I usually play with the party of 4 or 5. Six? Almost never.

Boran_blok, so what you are saying is that with a party of 6 the people get 0% exp each?