Your Chosen Ones

Not enough to worry about. By the time you focus and specialize plus dual wield and other modifications.

 

A s a base, I start with a Half-elf Ranger/Rogue(ranged), an Elvin Sorcerer, usually 2 Clerics and a Tank of some sort usually a Dwarf) with Meleny who makes a great support spellcaster. Currently I am doing a all Dwarf party

 

My old favorite -
1.Fighter-human dual wielding
2.Barbarian-half orc greatsword
3.Cleric-human Heironeous
4.Wizard -elf fireball longbow
5.Ranger-human longbow, maybe multiclass with rogue

NEW,lately
1.Fighter-any melee
2.Fighter-any longbow
3.Wizard-any
4.Cleric or Druid-any
5.Rogue-pure or multi class with Ranger or Wizard
6.Random PC or NPC

Experimental
1.PC Faceman-Rogue or Bard
2.Elmo
3.Fruella
4.Ronald
5.Spugnoir
6.Meleny, Zaxis or Wonnilon
Very fun!

 

I've had a variety of parties. My first favorite incorporated a lot of theory from early 3.5 tabletop, including an Elf Cleric Archer, a Human Fighter/Barbarian tripper, a Human TWF Rogue, a Human Wizard, and something else. Meleny was also involved.

More recently, I enjoyed a duo of CG Human Cleric of Pelor (Good & Strength Domains) and CG Human Wizard.

After Temple+ got me back, I started a Pseudo Ironman (PIM) run with a LN Human Rogue1/Wizard (going Rogue1/Wizard5/Fighter1/Eldritch KnightX) and a LN Human Druidess (Wolf Companion). We're 'squatting' (purposely not leveling after L3 due to EXP accumulation via a T+ house rule) while having Burne and Oohlgrist do most the work. The main characters are Effective Character Level 14ish now before the temple is clear. Burne is ECL 12, but may be higher had he not made a small library of fireball scrolls, as well as any other spell I wanted the main Wizard to learn. Oohlgrist is ECL 6ish.

On the Temple+ Run, we've had guest star party members:
-Furnok: Added to kill him to steal his stuff, then had the Hommlet Druid revive him. Used him to open the Arena of Heroes chest (with MW Thief Tools and cat's grace).

-Otis: IM'S RUN! He tanked the east side. Oohl tanked the west side. We actually beat the Run before without him, but lost a party member and thus lost a PIM life. (The party was squatting then and the Druid got grappled and eaten. Oops!)

-LG female Cleric of Heironeus (Law and Good Domains): She exists presently to summon stuff. When she can outfit the main party in +1 Holy Axiomatic weapons and +2 armor and shields, she goes into retirement at the Hommlet inn.

-Other NPCs were added to the party so they could donate their starting inventories to the main party and sometimes be killed for EXP.

 

You didn't loot or kill Ronald I hope.

 

Yes to all of that

 

First, Ronald Rynnwrathi is a fictional character.

Second, I've barely recruited or talked to him in any ToEE runs I've played for years as of now.

Third, if I wanted to mess with my character, I could. M'kay?

 

Generally I like to mix things up and go multiclass heavy. Early game is a bit rough but the party really starts to bloom once the moathouse is out of the way. In my last run though I had these guys. Even though I listed them at 20th level characters, I finished at around 16.

Human Paladin2/Cleric16
The party's tank and support. She was a Paladin of Wee Jas so I had her swing around a scythe for thematic purposes. For most part she used her spells to buff herself though. Generally I had most of my healing actually come from potions since the game gives them out like candy. She had some pretty terrifying damage numbers, and ended up with the most kills.

Human Monk3/Druid17
The other front liner. Monk and Druid mesh pretty well together since the WIS bonus to AC does wonders on a Druid, especially since Druids themselves have limited armor choices. She had Flurry of Blows but for most part she was drawing fire, flinging some crowd control spells and doing trip attacks.

Human Bard15/Rogue5
The party's diplomat, trap finder, lockpicker all rolled up into one neat package. He was also a very amazing archer, dealing some pretty impressive damage numbers with Rapid Shot and Sneak Attack. He was also a master of enchantment spells so he was also good at turning the tables on enemies.

Human Sorcerer18/Paladin2
A staple on most of my teams. Since the Rogue and Druid have crowd control under their belts, the Sorcerer tends to focus on the more offensive side of things, bringing out the Evocation and Necromancy spells into play. During early game I have her take some key buffs to help out like Cat's Grace and Mage Armor, swapping them out for better spells later on. The Paladin levels come into play very late in the game (Generally by WotGS), and only exist to buff her saving throws.

Elf Cleric7/Wizard13
The party's artificer. He's only for crafting and is pretty terrible at combat compared to the rest of the team. His progression was painful too, since he was burning exp for crafts and was investing in two spell casters for levels (Though I focused on Cleric initially). In future playthroughs I'll probably play Temple+ and make this guy a Mystic Theurge, to make him slightly more effective in combat. Losing those Wizard bonus feats might be a problem though, along with my personal bias against Mystic Theurges in general...

 

Most recently( until I accidentally deleted them) so I have yet to finish the New Content
4 Half-Elf ranged monsters

Rg1/Ftr1/Wiz16, Ftr2/Sorc16, Ftr2/Clr16(hieronius), Rng2/Clr18(Pelor) all with Long Composite bows +5,holy,shock,axiomatic(anarchic on the backups) It's just too bad you cannot Scribe Scrolls for all the spells you can cast or they would also have scrolls of Sunburst

 

This is an intriguing idea. All Clerics could be interesting. To be honest someone else presented this idea of all Clerics before. I would have one a cleric of wee jas? So as to have the ability to scribe scrolls,even arcane ones? A cleric with a strength domain and have 4 levels of fighter. And a few others of various disciples.

 

Almost as likely as a programmers suspension of disbelief

 

I chose a wilderness theme for my current party:
Barbarian-greatsword,kilt
Ranger-dual wield cleaver and handaxe
Druid-longbow,crafting
Rogue,halfling-shortbow (rustic enough)
Sorcerer-wild version of a wizard.
Surprisingly fun. I am beginning to like theme parties.

 

This is my current party and it's very similar to most of the ones I used.

Human male Bard. Point blank and precise shot (using shortbow), enchantment spell focus and role as secondary healer. Bards are better than fighter/spellcaster in many respects, mainly because of total caster level. Also can wear light armor without the arcane failure %.

Female human fighter with the barbarian armor because it's cheap, looks cool and can me crafted. Max Str and Dex; 2-h weapon and max tumble skill. Make good use of movements for optimal flanking and Cleave. I give her a ranger level just to get the Track feat, which I like for role play reason (can also use the charm animal scroll).

Human male cleric of Heironeus with the war and good domain (for free weapon focus and ability to craft holy weapons). Keep him pure cleric so he can make holy weapons as early as possible. Maybe add a few fighter levels later. Wears heavy armor and shield with stylish red overcoat and golden helmet.

Dwarf Wizard with one level of fighter. Greater spell focus in enchantments. Wears Pointy hat, black longcoat and katana.

Elven rogue with weapon finesse, making the most of flanking and sneak attacks. Uses stealth to collect the Emridy Meadow's Giant loot early in the game (I come back for the kill right after the Moathouse when I have Web and the charm animal scroll).

I usually start with no NPC at first then I get Elmo to help me with the Meadows and the Moathouse and I leave him when I get to Nulb. I usually take Pishella along as my second arcane spellcaster. If I do not have a bard I may take Zaxis. I used to always take Riana and Selena and dual them to fighter and sorcerer, but I'm getting tired of them.