4-Character Party?

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I just finished a 4-character evil party run. The idea of the party was a Drow Cleric of Bane and her enslaved Underdark retinue made common cause with a wicked local Luskan Bard, who acted as the party's "face" when dealing with surface dwellers.


The PCs were:

Aria Dreadsong - NE Human Bard / Fighter 4
She was the support caster, handling a lot of healing and utility magic. In combat, she focused on archery. Since Bards don't start with Bow proficiency, she took her first level of Fighter at character level 2, and then put all new levels into Bard until she got the War Chant of Sith. At that point, she put 3 more levels into Fighter to get Weapon Spec: Bows. Usually I think Weapon Spec is overrated, but bows deliver a huge number of low-damage attacks, so the small damage bonus can really add up, and her accuracy was fantastic even with Rapid Shot on.

I didn't take many "offensive" spells, and this meant I didn't have to pump her Charisma much, and I put most of her bonus level-up points in Dexterity. By the end game, she was a Bard 16 / Fighter 4, and her full attack routine was +27/+27/+22/+17/+12 for 9-14 damage with ordinary (Everlast) arrows before buffs. With buffs, her main attack starts around +36 and deals 17-22 damage (crit 19/x3, but really 18/x3 due to Luck).

Black Miz'zty - LE Drow Cleric (Dreadmaster of Bane) / Monk 1
One of my main tanks. Str 18, Dex 10, Con 10, Wisdom 20. Not much Int or Cha. She took a level of Monk, but then she was able to purchase Plate of the Pit Fiend (+10 AC), so the Monk bonus didn't really pay off.

She was a primary spellcaster. She would Animate Dead, buff herself, and then wade into melee. Being an Elf (Drow) gave her free access to Large Swords, and she probably could have spared the feats for Axes or Bastard Swords too.

Slave Boy - CE Drow Rogue 2 / Enchanter
Started out as a Rogue 1, then went into Enchanter until level 9 or so, then took another level of Rogue to keep his skills up, then all Enchanter. Finished the game as a Rogue 2 / Enchanter 16 -- I shoulda done more level squatting I guess, or not taken that 2nd level of Rogue. Live & learn. He wasn't able to keep his thieving skills maxed, but he didn't have any difficulties.

Even though he's got Bow proficiency, I had him use a Crossbow for most of the game, since Crossbows have a higher attack bonus and seem to do better damage if you can't use Rapid Shot. His attack bonus was never going to get as high as the Bard/Fighter's bonus (both due to his LA and due to Enchanter's very low BAB progression), so Rapid Shot would not have been a good choice for him in the long term. (The Bard's end-game BAB was +19; this Enchanter's end-game BAB was +9.)

Slave Girl - NE Deep Gnome Druid
The other main tank. Str 14, Dex 14, Wis 20 (to start); all future boosts went into Wisdom of course. My only single-class character. Druid spells are awesome, especially all the area-of-pain spells (Spike Stones, Spike Growth, Entangle, Insect Plague), but I don't know if it's worth having a whole character for that. Also, her high-level spells were not very inspiring: she ended up a Druid 17, and I never actually cast any 9th level spells with her because they just weren't very good.

As a melee tank she was fine, thanks to her high AC and innate ability to cast Mirror Image. I didn't experiment much with shape-changing.

- - -

Conclusions:
- Bards are awesome.
- Clerics are awesome.
- SR is awesome.
- Small parties do a good job mitigating LA penalties.
- One or two levels of Rogue on a Wizard makes a great Rogue.

- - -

Okay, so here's my question: what's a comparably awesome yet different 4-man party of good PCs? My thoughts are:

- Half-Orc Bard / Barbarian -- front-line tank (party leader and combat leader) -- Str 18, Cha 14, decent Int for social skills
- Drow Cleric -- archer, will be utterly brutal with Rapid Shot + Holy Power -- Dex 20, Wis 20, what other stats?
- ???
- ???

... and then I need a Rogue, and an Arcane spellcaster (maybe a Sorcerer this time?), and at least one more tank.

It would also be cool if everyone could have a Paladin or Monk mix-in level (so no rewards ever), but Bards don't mix with either of those. Maybe I'll install the Ease of Use alignment patch and take an Aasimar Bard / Paladin instead of a Half-Orc Bard / Barbarian? I dunno.

Any suggestions?

 

Just a minor nitpick - ANY party is good at mitigating ECL penalties. The only thing a four man party gets is about +1 level compared to a six-person one once they're past the early initial leveling burst.