[Aerich]

hey Gimli,

I've been without internet access for a few days, so I only just saw your question. I'll address your original question re: party composition.

So you want:
1 - Paladin
2 - Dwarf Fighter
3 - Halfling Fighter/Thief
4 - Half-elf Cleric/Mage

A good nucleus here. The dual-class F/D is a good addition - I would heartily recommend it. I'm nearly as big a fan of druids as NobleNick is of bards. Druids take a lot of stress off of clerics (healing) and mages (spells). Their spells are also well suited to weaken and hinder enemies for your fighters to pound.

As it will be your first time through, I would recommend dualing at lvl 9 - even though you end up with a weaker tank, it will still make a very adequate grunt. And on the other side of the ledger, a fighter that duals at lvl 13 takes a LONG time to regain fighter skills. Also, you will want to have some time to get familiar with the druid spells. They are so good that I'm not sure I would have the patience to wait for lvl 13 before dualing. Especially on Core difficulty.

Adding in an elf ranger is fine, too. That will take the ranged role from the paladin, and give you a specialist in that area. And a part-time tank, as well. I'm a little uncomfortable about taking Great Sword instead of Long sword, both from an RP perspective and from a game perspective. Elves get a +1 with LS, but not with GS. You can give GS to the paladin in the beginning, and have enough slots to give him specialization in LS before you get the uber weapon. Here's a tip for the ranger - take some form of UNDEAD as your racial enemy.