I have not played IWD a lot although I have completed it, so I have yet to finalise my ideal party. This is assuming HoF Mode.
Human Paladin:
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STR: 18/~~
DEX: 18
CON: 18
INT: 03
WIS: 18
CHA: 18
Yes, yes... Sirius Black is as dumb as a post but still knows the meaning of life. [img]tongue.gif[/img] Took bloody ages to roll this so that I could export it and save it as a default template for future games.
He serves one purpose, and one purpose only. To be the tank, the only tank. At least until other party members run out of spells to cast and join in the fray. Beyond that, his only fellow melee comrades are expendable summons. The Paladin is not to be underestimated though! At the very start of the game, he can have a base AC of -3!
Splint Mail: Base AC 4
18 DEX: AC 0
Large Shield: AC -1
Innate Protection from Evil: AC -3
It should be noted that the Paladin's Innate PfE lasts as long as Stoneskins, so everytime my party wakes up, I cast it to give him a permanent AC bonus all the time( unless the enemy dispels it, which is uncommon). It is also accumulative with the Clerical version of PfE.
My current party Paladin is only in Dragon's Eye Level 2, and during combat, his AC can easily reach -16( although it is effectively -20 due to lowering of the enemies' THACO). I am just waiting to get magical armour and other stuff to boost his AC even lower.
It should be noted that I can actually make his AC go even lower with certain spells, but I prefer other spells.
Halfling Fighter/Thief:
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STR: 17
DEX: 19
CON: 18
INT: 10
WIS: 10
CHA: 08
Much easier to roll than the Paladin is my Fighter/Thief, Stealthy, the... pseudo-Archer in my party. [img]smile.gif[/img] Due to lack of space, I had to cram the role of Archer and Thief into one character and thus this was the result. With 19 DEX, his THACO is excellent and although I had to forgo Grandmastery, I think his versatility more than makes up for it. I cannot afford to have rapid-fire archers in my party anyway, because magical arrows are horrendously in short supply in this game. Normal arrows are plentiful, but when you have to go back to buy ammunition every two fights, you have to consider reducing your archer's rate of fire. Specialisation is more than good enough for me, and he fulfils his task as a sniper, especially when it comes to finishing off Trolls and disrupting spellcasters.
Half-Elf Cleric/Ranger:
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STR: 18/~~
DEX: 18
CON: 18
INT: 10
WIS: 18
CHA: 08
Meet the party's witchdoctor, Robin Clym.
He Blesses, Curses, Prays, Recites, sing Harmonies, sets up Protections, etc... When the party is normal, they fall easily to the HoF boosted monsters, but when Robin starts casting, nary a person gets scratched. It is not uncommon for my party to take on a dozen say... Tough Lizardmen and not lose a single Hp at the end of the fight because their AC is so abnormally low! When even the party's Mage can have -10 AC... imagine what the others can have. [img]tongue.gif[/img] Not only that... his spells
reduces the damage dealt by the enemy, easing the need to gulp down Potions of Healing.
Although credit must be given to the Bard's War Chant of Sith as well, because it regenerates any teeny-weeny nicks the party might suffer during the battles.
Robin also plays the role of summoner, and he summons stuff first, then cast Protection from Evil 10' Radius. An invisible Stealthy( courtesy of an Invisibility spell from my Bard) or a stealthed Robin( temporarily take off his armour to enable stealthing) scouts ahead for the general enemies' location. Once the enemy has been found, the scout returns and the summons are sent there in the fog of war( to prevent them from fighting first).
When the summons are settled in their locations, the party marches forward, causing the enemy to engage the summons first( another reason why my party members rarely lose life), and gives Robin time to cast every single darn booster spell he has memorised to the point where even Dire Wolves become ungodly Hounds of Doom and Destruction, and Cave Bears become The Paws of Righteous Smacking.
Dire Wolves and Cave Bears are actually from my Fighter/Druid. Robin casts Animate Dead for his summons.
Finally, in the event that Robin runs out of booster spells to cast( astounding!
), he proceeds to cast offensive spells such as Sunscorch to blind the enemies, or Magic Stone against the Undead, etc... If he also runs out of offensive spells... then he casts 'some' personal booster spells such Draw Upon Holy Might and Aid, and enters the heat of battle, joining the Paladin who for some reason, failed to kill all the enemies in time. [img]tongue.gif[/img]
Half-Elf Fighter/Druid:
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STR: 18/~~
DEX: 18
CON: 18
INT: 04
WIS: 18
CHA: 15
Great Bear is the party shocker and raving lunatic( I even got the appropriate voiceset).
Whenever there is a battle, the first thing that GB does is to cast 4 Static Charges.
Once this is done, he proceeds to cast offensive spells such as Sunscorch, Alicorn Lance, etc... If the battle is in the outdoors, I will make him memorise and cast 4 Call Lightnings as well. As you can imagine, my outdoors fights are quite shocking.
I have lost count of how many battles in which the tide turned due to the constant and never-missing shocks from his spells. [img]smile.gif[/img]
His secondary role is that of a summoner, and a tank as a last resort.
Human Necromancer:
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STR: 12
DEX: 18
CON: 16
INT: 18
WIS: 16
CHA: 08
Azrael is... somewhat of a wildcard in the party. He is pretty much useless in the beginning, but he starts to hold his own once you gain access to level 3 and above spell scrolls. In the very, very beginning, his only contribution to the party was to stun targets for 3 rounds with his Chromatic Orbs. This was vital because everybody's THACO sucks big time in the beginning, and I needed Held/Stunned targets for automatic hits. Robin could cast Hold Person, but Chromatic Orbs was the only thing that could stop an Ogre dead in its' tracks, and 4 Ogres on HoF Mode are very, very deadly.
I have fond memories of my party members screaming for priests and aid in general as they retreated multiple times from the Orc Cave because they took too many hits. The war of attrition paid off though, and I managed to kill every single Orc and Ogre without a loss in rank.
One spell I really like to use is Slow. It not only slows down the opponent's rate of attack, it reduces the opponent's AC by 4 and this spell has a saving penalty of -4. Hard battles become laughable battles because of the spell.
On the other side of the spectrum, we have the Haste spell. I reserve this as a wildcard as it causes fatigue, so I only use it when I am fairly certain that the battle will be over before the spell wears off.
Azreal does not have a lot of area-of-effect spells as they tend to end up hurting my party as well, so I stick to spells that party-friendly or have a very small radius of effect( like Mordenkainen's Force Missiles). One of my favourite spells is Melf's Acid Arrow. One is pretty much nothing, but when you cast it 6+ times on a single target, said target is going to be a melted puddle.
Human Bard:
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STR: 18
DEX: 12
CON: 16
INT: 18
WIS: 10
CHA: 15
Jasmine is my party buyer. Using the Friends spell, she buys stuff with a Charisma of 20. During combats, all she mostly does is to sing the War Chant of Sith and shuffle around to make sure that everybody gets the benefits, even the summons. I plan to let her do some spellcasting too, once I get Elven Chainmail. Oh, and I use her to pickpocket stuff too.
Two Rings of Free Action is always nice in the beginning.