POLL: Power-wise, what's your optimum number of party members?

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This poll considers no XP cap removers or anything.

What is the optimum party size (number of members) for your playing style? If you feel like responding with a party, or just with a number, feel free!

Poll Information
This poll contains 1 question(s). 40 user(s) have voted.
You may not view the results of this poll without voting.

Poll Results: Power-wise, what's your optimum number of party members? (40 votes.)

Power-wise, what's your optimum number of party members? (Choose 1)
* 1 (solo) - 5% (2)
* 2 - 3% (1)
* 3 - 7% (3)
* 4 - 13% (5)
* 5 - 20% (8)
* 6 - 53% (21)

 

6, ofcourse, it needs a little micro management, true, but 6 people can do much more than a solo char can do in one round.

 

A party smaller than 4 is just not the authentic article .

 

I voted 5...

PC is normally a fighter / mage dual- or multi-class, spell choice is primarily offensive
Jaheira for tanking and healing
Anomen / Viconia for healing / anti-undead support
Jan for trap-finding and disarming and spellcasting support for PC - buffing, disabling spells.
Minsc / Korgan / Valygar / Cernd for additional tanking.

The remaining slot is to pick up other NPCs for their specific quests. Once into chapter 6, Jan is often replaced by Imoen, although sometimes they both come along...

 

It all depends really, often it will change with different fights - I found that around the Brinlaw/Underdark stage with a party of two was redicuosly easy with HLA's. Just Dragon's Breathed anything in sight. Having said that it was a quite difficult getting started and I relied heavily on wands. Very small fights were also a bit more time consuming than they would have been for a 6 member party. A full six member party is a lot easier early on and is probably more suited to the more important 'boss' battles, i.e. Irenicus and the final ToB figtht, and losing a character or two isn't usually too much of a big deal, just complete the fight and resurect when it's over. With a very small party, of say two or three, getting off to a bad start will often require a reload.

 

I used to solo a lot (and sometimes I like going solo for some quests, last time I played Tutu I soloed my wizard slayer until he was level 5) now I like parties better. For sheer power a high level character with HLAs in SoA is nigh unstoppable.

Micromanaging a party may require some work (depending on the party, when you have several spellcasters or backstabbers it takes some planning).

4 is nice but in BG2 I'd rather go with 5 (and enjoy the banter), the 6th slot is left vacant to rotate quest NPCs and eventually take Sarevok in ToB.

Once a party feels right I hate changing it and keep the same NPCs for the entire game if I can (if one gets permanently killed I won't necessary replace him/her with a substitute unless I really need to have a replacement).

A party of 5 is balanced (a tank, a healer, a caster, a thief and an extra spellcaster) and levels up slightly faster while opening opportunities for adding other NPCs (on a short or long term basis).

 

I voted 4. It is a nice medium between hitting the level cap too soon and not reaching it soon enough, IMO.

Normally though, I tend to play with 5-6 party members for added versatility and banter.

 

I always play with a full party of 6. BG2 is about dialogue and banter for me.

 

6

I like to have as many options available as possible concerning the use of weapons, equipment and special abilities.

I know. I'm playing the equipment, but I also like to have a versatile party that can handle any situation with the least amount of micromanaging. I mean, with one guy alone, you have to fiddle between your equipment and spells a lot more than with a full party. With everyone specialized to handle a specific type of situation on their own, it takes a lot less time to prepare for specific battles. And you can take out those dragons much sooner than you could with only one character.

Sure. The game is a lot easier in the beginning with a full party, but it gets ridiculous with those HLA's you get far too soon if you have only one guy.

As one character can handle any situation, you'll miss a lot of fun making a different party of six every time. The banters bring so much to this game that if you take them out the game loses a lot IMO.

 

With the exception of one solo run through, I always have a full 6-(wo)man party.

 

1 I never managed to play with a party except my first try IIRC. No micro management, sheer power. But boring after some stage. I think I'm the only one here who plays always solo. Everyone seems to have the ability to play with a party.

 

6 every time. I like banter and sidequests.

 

Probably five, because there aren't enough good items to go round for everyone.

 

@Tassadar

Are you out of your mind?? Even with 6 members I end up having let some near artifact level items collect dust. Between staves, katanas, short sword, longswords, bastard swords, greatswords, scimitars, axes, hammers, halberds, etc, etc... there are PLENTY of good items. And that's just looking at melee weapons. I can give you examples of what some of these items are if you need!

 

Let me explain what I mean. If you are say, a blade and want to dual wield celestial fury and belm, that means someone else misses out. So you can't utilise Valygar and Haerdalis with those weapons. Another example: there's only one Robe of Vecna and one Staff of the Archmagi, so you'll have to choose between Aerie, Edwin, Imoen, Nalia, Jan, and yourself if you're a mage as well. When you add up all the "must-have" items, you end up with about five really well equipped party members and one straggler.

 

In my most recent run through I had:

-PC - Human Berseker/Mage - Celestial Fury, Foebane twf
-NPC1 - Half Elf Fighter/Thief/Mage - Flail of Ages, Belm, twf
-Jaheira - Spectral Brand/Shield
-Minsc - Flail of Ages, Axe of the Unyielding
-Anomen - Crom Faeyr, Shield
-Keldorn - Carsomyr

So items like staff of the ram, staff of the magi, mace of disruption, Angvurdale (sp?) etc end up as "backup" weapons or are not used at all.

Now if you have a party of all mages, then I guess I could see your point, because they only have 3 - 4 weapon choices, and they aren't great ones, and limited mage gear.

But your example about Haerdalis and Valygar I just don't understand. Give Valygar Celestial Fury and Crom Faeyr, and give Haerdalis the Flail of Ages and Belm. Both will be deadly. Those two have virtually unlimited weapon choices, so I'm not sure why you'd focus on only a small subset of your possibilities and conclude that there isn't enough weapons to give both of them great gear.

 

To quote Caradhras-

That's almost exactly my thoughts, the one difference is that I prefer six over four for enjoyment purposes, but power-wise they are close.

 

I voted 4, but it's optimally either 3 or 4 for me.

 

I vote 5, 2tanks+1cleric/druid+1mage/sor+1thief/bard

 

I voted 4.

With NPC's:

PC: Fighter/Mage/Thief (or bring along Jan and play as a Fighter/Mage)
Fighter: Korgan
Arcane: Edwin
Divine: Jaheira/Viconia (probably Viconia for SoA and Jaheira for ToB)

MP party:
1: Fighter/Mage
2: Fighter/Thief
3: Fighter/Cleric
4: Sorcerer, Blade or Monk

Played them all, and I've never experienced stronger partys.