[Aerich]

Well, the drow rogue/ranger/paladin/wizard is Marty's favourite character (where's he been lately?), and I thought I'd give it a try. Realistically, having played it as far as I have, it's a build that probably needs HoF to show how effective it is. It got a lot of kills early, but now is definitely a step behind characters 1 & 2 as a tanker. As for why, think versatility. It's a high Dex, high Int character, so it takes care of my thievery duties, the ranger level is for dual wield as you speculated, and the pally levels are for Aura of Courage, a few more HP and BAB, and later, Cera Sumat. It's got mediocre Str, so dual wield is more effective than a two-hander - currently using the Wight Blade and Sulo's Hook. With Expertise and wizard buffs, it's fairly hard to hit, although it doesn't hand out a lot of damage. It's also got magic resistance and evasion, which is a combo I like. Stat distribution was tough.

I'm conceptualizing the character as a light tank with options. I figured this was a decent party to test it out, since the others are, to this point anyway, fully capable of carrying a dead-weight character for a dozen levels or so, and the character is not so ineffective by any means. The sorc and increasingly the druid hand out the AoE pain, the Dreadmaster heals, curses, and holds, the monk plays unhittable meatshield, and the Battleguard hands out the melee damage after buffing. The ro/rgr/pal/wiz does whatever he needs to, which is often archery.