What's your optimal # of party members?

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I've been experimenting a lot lately, and am really starting to dig a 4 person party.

You get way too powerful when soloing, and a full party gets cumbersome.

What do you think?

 

I'm finding three to be rather awesome but somewhat lacking, but only lacking due to having two of them being straight melee types (monk, Sarevok, & Imoen). A more balanced three-person party would be possible and probably quite enjoyable. You get pretty damn powerful, but you don't hit level 40 too quickly.

A four-person would also be pretty good at this, especially when you consider something along the lines of a Fighter, a Mage, a Cleric, and a Thief; the original four-player RPG party. And such a party can even be gotten as an evil party too! Korgan/Sarevok, Edwin, Viconia, and a PC thief is a great party. (With a good/neutral party you have to get more creative with the predominant duals & multis.)

OTOH, I don't really find it cumbersome to have all six slots filled. In addition to the extra banter, you've got more options in combat as you usually have two or more people that can do the same thing. This redundancy is helpful when you need to bombard an enemy with a particular tactic, whether it be Breaching spell protections, making them pincushions with arrows, or swarming them with tanks. A six-person party is sure to have more than enough of everything, barring some (but not all) parties with skill themes like cleric parties or stealth parties, which would be more of a problem for a smaller party anyway.

 

In SoA I like 5 characters with a rotating #6 slot. I usually take Sarevok for ToB.

 

I play 6 characters for the entire duration of the game.

 

i have just played with 4 characters up until the start of TOB. i found this quite good but overpowered as my ranger had started getting HLAs in the underdark. my party managed to cover all areas extremely well (PC as a ranger, a home made bard and assissin and aerie). could have probably ditched the bard but he did come in handy as a back up melee fighter and a second spellcaster to remove protective spells from other mages.

 

I do the same, this way you get to do as many NPC related quests as you like.

I used to solo a lot but it became too easy and way too boring.

 

I prefer to keep a party of 4 and alternate the 5th spot and attempting every quest with that group till i get imoen back. Then stick with that 5 and pick up Sarevok in ToB.

 

My thoughts exactly.

Most of the time I go with 6 characters in my party for the extra dialog, but if I want to breeze though the game with minimal interference, I'll take 2 or 3 NPCs.

 

I'm planning a 4 person for my next game, inspired by the "Path of Darkness" books.

The party will look like this (I think)

Jarlaxle: Blade, elf (drow)
Artemis Entreri: Assassin, human
Rai'gy: Mage/Cleric, elf (drow)
Kimmuriel: Sorcerer, elf (drow)

Do you think that would be a good party from a powergaming standpoint?

 

I am a 3 or 4 man myself.

I have tried all formulas. Solo'd a few times and completed with a six.

In many ways it is EASIER doing a solo as you are not 'protecting' an Aerie or Edwin type.

But 6 can be very cumbersome with difficulties raised keeping everyone together, protecting the weak etc.

But at the end of the day...whatever suits you.

[ June 25, 2006, 13:49: Message edited by: Chelsea ]

 

6.

 

Six if the majority are single classed and I want a lot of interparty banter (especially when trying new NPC mods). Four for heavily multiclassed parties. (fighter/mage + Jaheira + Aerie + Jan = Awesomeness.)

 

4 is perfect...

My ideal party would be Keldorn, Haer'Dalis, Aerie and Imoen. Remove one character depending on what class type your own PC is. If you are playing a Sorcerer, ditch Imoen. If you are playing a Ranger/Cleric ditch either Keldorn or Haer'Dalis...

 

Usually 6, I prefer single class characters so a big party works better for me.

 

I'm currently playing three. Kensai waiting to dual to thief, berserker, cleric/mage. Its a little annoying right now because I'm getting wasted by traps and my cleric/mage is all but useless. Still, we're managing to make pretty good progress through tactics.

 

i prefer 4. you have a decent amoutn of options open to you and each individual member gets more then enough exp. the only problem is finding convincing myself to throw away all those fancy weapons that you dont need.

 

Four is my preference. The main thing that annoys me about this is that all your inventory slots get filled up so quickly.

 

i dont play that much, but i usually go

-Fighter/Cleric (Multiclass)
-Paladin
-Berserker
-Cleric/Ranger
-Thief
-Fighter/Mage

or

-Fighter/Cleric (Multiclass)
-Paladin
-Berserker
-Jahiera or Viconia
-Thief
-Fighter/Mage (Multiclass)

or

-Fighter/Cleric (Multiclass)
-Paladin
-Berserker
-Fighter or Bard or Ranger (archer)
-Thief
-Aerie

 

I'm surprised so many people don't use the Bioware NPCs. IMO they're so much more interesting than self-made NPCs.

 

Five, with one MP created character, till Asylum, and then I get Immy to a total of 6. I drag Yoshimo to Spellhold too for fun.