My party is:
Banaden (me), lvl 14 or was it 15 crusader (I simply love paladins, everywhere)
Minsc
Nalia
Jaheira
Mazzy
Valgyar
I always have played in every game in more melee oriented style. Truth to be told, I have yet to use many spells in BG2 either. Most combat I do is melee + ranged, and spells go in when I need some serious debuff/heal/buff/prot, nothing more really. My main char uses the Carsomyr +5 sword, Minsc (being a ranger and all) has Celestial Fury and Cromm Faeyr and simply flattens everything on his way. Nalia uses neat short bow (beats me, forgot the name) and Jaheira got some VERY good sling, forgot the name tho heh.. Mazzy and Valgyar are my reserve melee chars, but currently they use pretty good short/longbows with best arrows I can buy. And I can buy now a lot. At start many was scrace, I grabbed all I could and sell and now suddenly I have a lot of cash .
I had Keldorn, he was OK, but I am good at my heart as a RL person . So I didn't let Keldorn's family fall apart and released him from my service. While I lost good fighter, it was a good deed I feel heheh.. Yoshimo was suspicious to me, to I released him when I met Keldorm and now I know it wasn't such a bad idea. Good thing I stripped him of all the goodies he had heh. Aerie and her blasted wing-mourning was giving me the creeps to at one point I simply booted her - fly away, fly. Minsc may be simpleton, but he's funny nevertheless and a VERY good fighter, provided he has the needed gear. Nalia as a thief is not bad at all, she's good mage to me also and is using her bow pretty well. Jaheira is good druid and uses sling well, and if needed the can swing her scimitar well also - with the proper gear, what she also has.
So while my party is more oriented for melee and ranged attacks, it has not hindered me at all. When battle starts, my ranged combatants get usually already few hits in and at that moment the spellcasters have launched up only some buffs. Then the melee moves in and my main char starts to dispell and smack and Minsc - when hasted - is like a Windmill of Death. My battles are, so far, usually rather short - ranged attackers do nice pre-damage, then melee ones hurt bad, with ranged ones supporting, and when needed Nalia or Jaheria throw in some debuff/buff/heal. And with weaker mobs - usual ones - they often drop from ranged attacks before melee chars even get to them heh - it aint nice to face my group only to see some big hulks running to you with big weapons and then get 3 arrows and 1 bullet in belly . I have the "Pause on seeing Enemy" turned on, so I can usually check what enemy I am facing and then set the attacks.
Right now this group works very well, I do not foresee any big changes generally. Some are coming though, take Imoen for example.. Then I have to see what to do heh. Mazzy may have to go prolly..
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