As an amusing counterpart to Pirengle's party, my current Gang of Six (which is just about to enter Chapter 7) includes:
Zarmen, the Male Chaotic Good Gnomish Fighter/Illusionist
Aerie
Jan Jansen
Edwin
Nalia
Kelsey
Gee....guess which Stronghold we took?
Early game was HELL--due to the shocking lack of brawling ability, I cheesed Zarmen's STR/DEX/CON all to hell, with maximum rolls in each, and he's been using nothing but the FoA and Axuredge+4. Once Zarmen's Saves started hitting the Negative range, however, everything was smooth sailing. (Before that, his weak Save vs. Death caused me ENDLESS pain. I must have died about 50 times, failing to Save vs. that damn Paralytic Gaze in the Planar Sphere.)
Oh--we still haven't done Mencar Pebblecrusher yet. I'm going to see how much overkill we can pack into one little room.