Thoughts on RP'ing

What are your thoughts on RPing in IWD. I created my party but I didnt try to dual class mages and clerics to help them live longer. I just went straight mage or cleric. Im not a big fan of trying to manipulate the numbers in order to try to make an invincible party. I did alter the starting rolls for a characters main attribute like STR or INT but I didnt dual class anything in order to get more HP's or what-not. I know you cant really RP in IWD because you are limited to what you can say and do, but, how did you guys go about creating your party?

I am into Role-Playing. I've been into it since my pen and paper days like 8 years ago. And while it's true you can't really role-play much, because your interactions with NPCs are somewhat limited, and the game is so linear as to not really give you much decision in how events play out (You *will* go to the temple and vanquish all the baddies, retrive artifact x, and get information on how to free the spirits of the ruins just over the hill).

The way I role-played, then, was by creating a party who would work well together, but yet were representatives of personalities I could relate to. I didn't min/max every character to the point where each could complete the game on their own, but I did re-roll stats on every one of them until they had at least an 18 in their primary stat.

Creating a powerful party really has nothing to do with RP... justifying your character's stats and creating at least a rudimentary backstory for where each character is from and how they got together is the basis for RP.

Hell, even a total powergamer could introduce a little RP in his game like so...

"Bubba the mighty warrior with 18/00 STR was excelling in his career as a fighter and a soldier, slaying monster after monster with his Massive Greatsword of Death, until he suffered a bad injury to his leg, hampering his mobility in the heat of battle. Thus, he became a mage, falling back on his surprising intelligence and his ability with the bow to support his company in their continuing adventures."

Yes, it's a little hokey, but I made it up on the fly.

Personally, I think that as long as you have a blast playing the game, with as much or as little RP as you choose... you can't go wrong.