Just checking back and I saw Dave G's reply. Generally I agree with what he recommends. But before you pick your classes, you really need to make a decision about the kind of gaming experience you want.
Your party composition will drastically alter the amount of time required to complete the game. If you just want to cruise through and see the content, I'd use his party and I'd probably drop the bishop for a rogue. Rogues are the king of melee damage. Trust me.
While hybrid parties are more interesting at the end, they require a lot of time "training skills." You'll spend a few (real time) hours at the vault in Arnika leveling up your casting skills on your bishop and likely your hybrids also. You may decide to "train" your stealth, iron skin, or iron will skills also. "Training skills" is frequently necessary for hybrid characters, but it requires a significant investment of your time. (And I agree with Dave G. Maxed bishops are very powerful, but they require a big time investment). You may want to save this for a second trip through when you play with more hybrids at a high level of difficulty.
There are several things that hurt hybrids and make them harder to level. They typically start with fewer stat points which means that they unlock the high level skills (with a stat maxed at 100) later than "pure" classes. On top of this, in some cases they have to spread their stats thinner since they usually have multiple roles (ie: caster and melee). You add to that that they have higher experience requirements per level, causing them to level slower than "pure" classes, and you slow their development further. On top of that, they have far more skills in which to invest points. And finally, their special abilities (like "lightning strike" for samurais) are much weaker than the abilities of pure classes (backstabbing rogues and berzerking fighters).
Long story short -- they are lots of fun, but develop much slower.
The only thing I'd really disagree with Dave on is that I'd give Bloodlust to your samurai. The big benefit of bloodlust is that it induces berzerking which is already a class skill for your fighter. It's been a long time since I played Wiz 8 though, so maybe he knows something I don't
