When I first started playing this game my party was very unbalanced I wanted to be a little of everything.

Human Female Paladin (Decent Fighter she was O K)
Half Elf Male Ranger (same as above)
Elf Wizard (uhh I think he sucked a little)
Dwarf male Cleric (Dam he sucked)
Half Elf Female Bard (She sucked so much and gets attacked the most and dies so much I praticcly cried she wasn't useful at all sept at identifying items and her songs didn't to squat!)
Half Elf Female Thief (She sucked a whole lot too except at the theievn buissness!)

So overall this party was weak. In my opinion you need at least 3 tanks I only had two and man once one of my tanks were down the rest of my party was instantly slaughterd. And I didn't know that it costs more gold to ressurect half elves and you can't raise dead elves at all! But right now I have once of the best parties I ever created

Human Male Necromancer (Don't use him often since he doesn't have a whole arsenal of spells yet. But he always a life saver.)
Half Elf Ranger (Proficent with the bow great swords and long swords thus being a deadly foe at a distance. Decent in Melee.
Dwarf Male Fighter (Proficent with axe and warhammers dam he is so good he is the back bone of the party.)
Halfling Female Fighter (Proficent with shortswords she is good to and is the side kick of the dwarf!)
Halfling Male Thief (He is not the best in battle but his backstabs are dam deadly)
Female Elf Cleric (She is a little less than decent fighter but man she knows how to turn the tide of battle with her divine spells.)

I think my last party could have been better if I knew how to use em right now tell me your story

P.S. Rangers can dual wield right and um backstab too right?

P.S. 2: If you are wondering the names they are
Ranger: Christova Windspear
Dwarf: Lorgan Bloodaxe
Fighter Halfling: Mazey Fenta
thief Halfling: Lavok Quik
Cleric: Roxana
Necromancer: Mortis (Heard a latin word for death) Spellbind

Stole a few from BG2 and twirled em round a bit.

your first party looks a lot like my first party

Human Paladin
ELf Cleric
Elf Ranger
Human Fighter (7)- Dual to Necramancer
Human Thied (7)- Dual to Illusionist
½-Elf Bard

The trick is to give the paladin all the best defensive items and then have him run around with all the enemies chasing him - meanwhile the reat can use missile weapons to decimate the enemies.

your first party also looked like mine (1 paladin, 1 elf ranger, 1 dwarf axeman- ie fighter with ***** in axe, and *** in x-bow, 1 dwarf cleric-con bonuses to saves were killer,1 elf thief, 1 elf mage-went for total variety of spells over number per day). I didn't have any problems but I missed a few things as everyone was of the good alignments and some EQ I couldn't use.

My first party was:
Half Elf Ranger
Elf Ranger (The half elf was juch stronger)
Human Fighter (female)
Human Fighter (male)
Mage
Mage (Conjurer)

I didn't have much variety, but hey, it worked well for me!

<font color=silver>Welcome to IronWorks, Good Charlotte Fan! [img]graemlins/happywave.gif[/img] </font>

my first and only party has
a paladin
half elf ranger/cleric
human mage
human druid
gnome thief
elvish ranger(I think)