Best party combo (3 members)

[Lord of Alcohol]

Oorah for Mourngrim!!! I have a party of six sitting on their asses just waiting for Heart of Winter, which I just pre-ordered. I like them all and its fun deciding who does what. All the great weapons that you have to use its funner using six!

What turned me off having 6 was the fact you might not have enough magic weapons to go around. So when you run into your first mummy, you have two or three people running around like headless chickens trying to avoid getting hit. This is especially true with the druid fighter (no good druid weapons out there until very late). And there aren't enough magic arrows or bullets to be found.

Let's hope they fix dual wield so you can wield two weapons.

i do like small parties too, because all the reasons that have already been explained here. with 6 the game is easy (except maybe the 1st time), and 3 is a fine number to get nice xp and items but not be very weak. I completed IWD first with a whole party, then with 3 elven warriors (especialized in bows) and i started to complete it with a solo fighter/thief but then BG2 appeared and i left it in chapter 3 or so.

Not enough magical weapons to go around? We're talking about the same game now aren't we-IceWindDale-? I had so much magical weapons and armor I was forced to start selling or stowing extra magical junk I had cluttering up my inventory.

We're talking first mummy. You don't even have a +2 weapon by this time, and the sword you receive from the barbarian ghost at the end of chapter 2, the most powerful weapon you should have at that time, is a whooping +1 two hander.

Anyway (being unable to modify my message), when you have three members you change your tactics because you can't absorb as much damage or deal it out as quickly. Speed and control is one thing. Your first encounters with Veebergs you see they hit very hard, and so you have to run away from them and fight at a distance as long as possible. I twinked my characters with chapter 3 stuff though to make the more tedious first two chapters fly by.

Wait a minute. Burn me if I'm wrong, but won't 3 multiclass characters gain as much exp in their two classes as 6 single class characters? True, with 3 you're only splitting the exp 3 ways, but then they have to split it into 2 for each of em. So the exp get's split 6 ways in either case. Am I right or am I missing something?

Yeah, you're right, BUT: three characters will level up much faster. If you kill a monster worth 30,000 XP, each character will get 10,000 XP instead of just 5,000 XP for a six member party. So the three member party will be powerful way quicker (twice as quick as the matter of fact). You could remove the XP-cap to benefit more from this quick advancement.

Petrarcus ap Bhaal.

[Lord of Alcohol]

Run away from Verbeegs? They are easy to whack. Easy exp! So are all the giants.

Giants are easy when you have a -10 ac. Veebergs are a lot harder at -3 ac however.
Anyway, you are right that you do end up in the same spot experience wise had I played through with 3 multiclass vs. 6 single class (though you would probably have at least one or two multiclasses in the game). in my case though, I played it through most of the game with only two characters (triple class, and ranger cleric). Then I did it again with two (fighter/thief, fighter/illusionist). Now I combined the ranger cleric and with the other two to have three characters hitting the exp cap. Can't wait to see how they do when the expansion is out.