Thanks for the Help, now a Four man party, Will it work?

[DeamonMonkey]

Ok so heres what I'm thinking to do after I finish up my first party.

Mook Ranger
Farie Ninja
Elf Bishop
____ Samuria

Will that work with out tag along characters? I'm thinking about adding a Lord but if I won't need it then, I'd rather not have him in there.

The Ranger will use a nice bow, and the giant sexy sword. In the Front/Flanks as needed

The Ninja will use the CoC and Alchemist spells, and will be in the front

The Bishop will sit in the middle and concentrate on Divinity/Wizadry/Phsyonics

The Samuria will go up front with the ninja.

Things mentioned before were about the samuria taking a beating up front, because of the ninja's stealth. How would I solve that? Give him stealth training too, or what?

and thanks

-Deamon

[Holywhippet]

You should be able to get by with this setup - just don't try and advance too fast, you'll need to level up a bit to stand a chance.

As for the Samurai taking a beating, try spells like razor cloak, body of stone and guardian angel.

[DeamonMonkey]

for a second time through should I add a lord up front? I like to go fairly fast o.O

[Wereboar]

In expert mode, you'll have a very tough start. Until you get the Cane, you ninja will do almost no damage. He has no hit points, but at least he has stealth, so the samurai will get most of the enemy hits. Your bishop will be quite busy healing, and won't cast many attack spells.
A Lord in addition (or even instead of) the samurai will be a better tank.

[DeamonMonkey]

I want a Samurai looks like I'll be adding a lord

[Scatter]

Lord instead of Ranger? (three in front, Bish center)

[Ziggurat]

If you want to keep the samurai, I second the idea of a lord instead of a ranger. And a mook lord can use a sexy Giant Sword (and nice bow).

My current party is doing well with a gnome lord, faerie ninja and mook bishop. Changed the bishop to ranger for the Giant Sword but it is too late to be useful. I think she will go to alchemist next (lev 18).

[Kylospylon]

A samurai is not a tank, a ranger is not a tank, but together they could do it.

Your ninja is going to wield the cane, excellent, but what do you do until then? I would suggest perhaps having him/her flank with a extended staff, that way you could still train staff and wand, and the melee damage would be shared between the ranger and samurai. With easier enemies you could always bring the pre-cane ninja to the front to work on stealth, you shouldn't need special stealth training.

Having your ranger up front makes sense because you intend to use the giant sword, so you should be meleeing with your ranger anyway, swords are close range until the giant.

You would have 2 party makeups:
Before cane and giant

Front - Mook ranger + ____ samurai
Other - Faerie ninja + Elf bishop

After cane and giant

Front - ___ samurai + Faerie ninja
Other - Mook ranger + Elf bishop

I think your party will be okay so long as you make your samurai and ranger fairly beefy in the beginning. Without your gadgeteer, your party no longer has the distinctive ranged feel, they will more than likely go melee, mostly because of the cane.

If you're gong melee with no fighter, lord, valkyrie, monk, bard or rogue, you're going to get hurt. It can be done, but until your ninja gets the cane, it could be touch and go.

[Ziggurat]

Kylo has the right idea about best formations, and the difficulties you will run into, with your party as originally stated. I recommend the Felpur for Sam. They are fast. Also, there is a nice ring you can get for Felpur or Rawulf only (I forget which one).

On a side note: The mook bishop who changed to ranger stayed a ranger (although she took a good look at alchemist). The sword skill is coming along well despite her far fewer swings, being the main magic caster for defense. This accelerated development is probably due to her high intelligence. She has become somewhat of a force in melee. Odd enough, Power Cast has been going up quickly (almost one unit per buff-up session or battle) even though all other magic learning is frozen 'til she reaches lev 22.

[Scatter]

@ Kylospylon; i disagree that Sams and Rangers are not tanks. If i read your post correctly, you consider Monks to be tanks, and Bards, both of which have less AC available, and neither of which can wear Infy Helm. If you develop them properly, Sams and Rangers can inflict at least as much damage and withstand more punishing attacks than Monks or Bards.
If i were to categorize Ranger and Samurai as non-tanks, then the only classes left for me to call tanks would be Fighter, Lord and Valkerie.