[DraconisRex]

Well, since I'm on my 15th game searching for the perfect party, I have these thoughts on a party composition (I'm getting ready to Ironman):

2 Warriors. 1 Priest. 1 Rouge. 1 MagicUser. 1. Player's choice.


1. At least one primary healer. Bishop or Priest. Priest's get to higher level spells faster. Can dual to a Bishop later.

2. Two warriors minimum. Both must have spell books. At least one must be from the Priest spellbook class.

3. One rouge type. Mage's will take care of most of the lock picking. Therefore a "pure" rouge is not necessary. Ninja's use the Alchemist spell book, which also has Knock-Knock. This, IMO, offset's the Rouge lockpick bonus. The ranged criticals and auto penetration is great.

Bards are also excellent rouges due to their musical abilities being ever so helpful in fighting/healing/party support. A couple of dual-classed Alchemist levels can make the bard more self-sufficient (stamina, heal wounds).

Gadgeteers are a lot of fun. I like making the gadgets, and they're pretty darn handy at times. Almost like a mage/rouge/ranger hybrid, though far more limited in magery.

4. One mage type. Player preference. To some extent I prefer the Alchemist or a Mage/Alchemist hybrid. The psionicist is also good because there are some enemies that use a lot of mental-type spells.

5. Player's choice. Tough selection. A ranger is good here. A monk. Or a Bishop to study the spellbooks not used by a solo-classed priest and mage, plus undead and healing support.

My Ironman party (though still not entirely convinced):


Monk (human). Psionic spellbook and very, very fast. As he'll go first in most combats, at 5th level and later, he can save greviously injured characters with a quick healing spell.

Lord (dracon). Heavy armor. Dual weapons. Priest spellbook. Regenerates hit points.

Priest (elf). Will play to cross-over to bishop late in the early part of the game. Say around level 9.

Bard (elf). Will pick up two levels of alchemy in the early game and practice these rigorously. Lots of music practice will help make up for this loss of focus.

Mage (gnome). High resistance to mental spells (like TURNCOAT, ACK!). Not quite as good as an elf in some ways. But this is what I think I'll use.

Ranger (mook). Only one "make up" area to close the stats/profession disparity. They can start dealing out ranged mayhem faster than just about any other race.

But do what you want. Don't take this as gospel. Much of this has to do with *my* style of play, not any "perfect party" goings on.