Hullo!

[Lord Brass]

Originally posted by Seraph: I've been devolping a tendency to play smaller (3 or 4) person parties, and the Bard's skills are better for large party, so my opinion may be skewed a little.

Me too Seraph. Just trying to eke out the XP eh?

If you have a Bard with HoW installed, you get War Chant of the Sith as one of your songs (though all of them have their uses). This one adds to your combat abilities, and regenerates 3HP a round for each character within its radius. Nice.

Druids are fantastic too. Both classes seem so stunted in BG2 (I only say seem as I've never played it) but that may not be the case. Dwarven Fighter/Clerics, Gnomish Cleric/Illusionists and the ubiquitous Fighter/Druid are outstanding combinations that I'm sure most of us would recommend. Have a go with some, and see what you think NiceWorg.

[pritchke]

I understand perfectly Seraph. I use bards in parties of five or six. With smaller parties though I always take a druid. My last three person party.

Fighter/Thief elf
Fighter/Mage humam dualed to mage at level 6
Fighter/Druid half-elf

I could basically use all 3 as tanks. It was actually my easiest time through the game yet.

[SirWillow]

Sounds pretty similar to what I do overall as a party. Mine are usually variations of the following:

Paladin (almost a must have in the game)
Bard (item ID, mage spells, and the awesome songs)
Thief/ Mage or Thief/ Cleric (thief is a must, but multied is more versatile)
Fighter (turned into my archer. Sometimes this will be a cleric)
Fighter who duals to a mage (usually at level 9)
Fighter/Druid multiclass

I'll make some variations on it, depending on which time through and the mood I'm in. But usually in the mix of the party I end up with 2 people on the front (usually the Paladin and the other fighter/cleric or the fighter/druid). 2 people able to cast mage spells, 1 cleric, 1 druid, and 1 theif in the mix somehow. Gives me a nice balance, but changing around the mix sometimes can be quite fun.

But as the others said, play it through for a bit first, just to get the hang on things. Then after you're more comfortable with what's happening and how it works (and if you're like me), then start over with a new party and focusing more on the classes that you enjoy.