[NobleNick]

Relic,

Since you invited, I will indulge in a little party meddling (one of my favorite pastimes!), to give you ideas for next time. My goal is to make your original party more "power gamish" with as few tweaks as possible (i.e., keep the original flavor of your party. If you want to see some ideas on pure, built from the bottom up power parties, there are plenty of posts, including several in recent months by Aerich and myself.) I assume you will use the party to do the full game (IWD, HoW and TotLM).

Your current party:

1.) Dwarf Fighter
2.) Elf Ranger (good archer, backup fighter)
3.) Human Cleric
4.) Halfling Thief (who I should have gone fighter/halfing...)
5.) HE Druid (who is really starting to become powerful)
6.) Elf wizard (my AoE guy)

My suggestion:

1.) Dwarf Fighter ( *****NonAxe_EdgedWeapon, ***LongBow -OR- *****Axe, ***BluntWeapon [see discussion for character #6]. )
2.) Human good_Cleric[12]/Ranger (**Hammer, **Sling; **Flail)
3.) Human Fighter[13]/neutral_Cleric (*****Mace, ***Sling)
4.) HE Fighter/Thief (already what you were going to; **EdgedWeapon, **LongBow)
5.) HE Druid (*Scimitar, *Sling)
6.) Human Fighter[9]/Mage (AoE guy, ****EdgedWeapon, ***LongBow; -OR- *****Axe [if you don't go Axe on the Dwarf. Use Axe for your melee AND ranged weapon] and **BluntWeapon)

ALL characters have DEX maxed.
ALL characters have CON maxed.
ALL SC, MC and DC Warriors have STR maxed
"Max HP per level" option is turned ON.

Rationale: Need lots of Cleric power in HoW/TotLM. Fighter power is vital, too; so leave #1 as is; and DC #2 and #3 as Cleric/Warriors. Time the DCs so as to never be without a Cleric; and to have a high level Cleric on B.I. Going for mace with your neutral_Cleric allows use of the Giving Star. The C/R will have lots of slots for the Ranger's Druid spells. Leave #4 as per your chosen upgrade to the Thief: This gives him high HP and some offensive punch. Eliminate the only HP weak link in your party by starting out the Mage as a Fighter: With a CON = 18, she will have 126 HP at the DC!! I left the Druid alone simply because I tinkered enough elsewhere. You are right about this guy: as we travel further down the road toward powergaming, he would get MCed or (my preference) DCed with a Fighter. In the end game, this party has 4 excellent warriors plus 2 passable ones (F/M and Druid), 2 characters with access to Cleric spells, 2 with access to Druid spells and 1 with access to arcane spells.

Want to crank it up another notch? O.K., with all the humans and DCing going on around here, I'll go against my grain and MC the Druid. Boot the Dwarf Fighter(surprised?) and add a Bard. DC the F/M at F[13]. (The Bard can cover magic duties while you create a "Battle Mage.") The party would look like this:

1.) Human good_Cleric[12]/Ranger (**Hammer, **Sling; **Flail)
2.) Human Fighter[13]/neutral_Cleric (*****Mace, ***Sling)
3.) Dwarf Fighter/Thief (gets the Dwarf back into the party; **EdgedWeapon, **LongBow)
4.) HE Fighter/Druid (**Scimitar, **Sling, **BluntWeapon)
5.) Human Fighter[13]/Illusionist (AoE guy; *****EdgedWeapon, ***long bow; -OR- *****Axe [if you go Axe, use it for your melee AND ranged weapon] and ***BluntWeapon)
6.) HE Bard (fills in as mage in early to mid game; EdgedWeapon, Crossbow)

Rationale: In the end game, this party has 5 excellent warriors (any of whom can melee, range, and tank) plus one O.K. ranged warrior (Bard), 2 characters with access to Cleric spells, 2 with access to Druid spells and 2 with access to arcane spells. The Bard's War Chant will armor plate and heal your party: virtually eliminating the need for the Clerics to carry healing spells (allowing them to tank up on more buffing/combat spells). The Bard's HP will be the weak link in the party's HP, but give her Stoneskin, an item that Blurs, and Mirror Image, and she'll do great.

Hope you enjoyed this.

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What's a party,
without a song?
Bards ROCK!
Party On!!