Planning optimized party - looking for feedback

[Saice]

they are overpowered as hell and can turn any difficulty in the game to a triviality.

And so can dancing in a 2x2 square be.

[thufir]

Plan it however you want, but for me during my Hard, Ironman, single used crystal run, I ran this, going to top left to right then bottom left to right:

Lizard - Knight - Endure Elements, Poison Immune

Minotaur - Barbarian - Headhunter, Rage

Lizard - Alchemist - Endure Elements, Poison Immune

Lizard - Alchemist - Endure Elements, Poison Immune

But that's just me going to completely exploit the game system to make it easy a heck, but very very long and very careful. Especially since I know where most of the weapons I will be using are, along with the Crystal and Meteor Armor

My hard ironman single-crystal run has a party somewhat similar to this:

Human Knight. Skilled, Martial Training
Minotaur Barbarian. Headhunter, Martial Training
Human Alchemist. Skilled, Fast Learner
Human Battlemage. Skilled, Fast Learner

On hard/ironman/singlecrystal the herb surplus the alchemist gives you is required, imo; you'll need everyone to have a ton of potions for when you make a mistake and get backed into a corner by something, or otherwise trapped by monsters. Remember that every error is potentially costing you several hours of play so you'll want to be prepared for the stupidest things that you could do. Martial training for the two frontliners so they hit things (and so I am less dependent on dexterity and accuracy). I think level is probably the most important factor determining party strength so I have a lot of humans, and the backliners both have fast learner so they level even more quickly. Skilled is also amazing; it's almost a free level. (I feel that the minotaur hits things too hard to not have, and being a barbarian gives him the hitpoints to survive toe to toe most of the time.)

Both frontliners took armors and heavy weapons early and got armors to 4 ASAP. Heavy armor is basically a necessity for frontliners. I played a game where the battlemage was up front and I did a lot of reloading. Acceptable if you can save an unlimited number of times, not so much when you are limited to a handful of saves during your game. And all the best weapons, as has been pointed out repeatedly, are heavy weapons. (The knight dropped his bonus skillpoint into light weapons for a little help during the first 5 or so levels; it's nice to be able to wield swords and rapiers early. I could see that bonus point in accuracy though if you don't mind a little extra difficulty in the initial hours of play.)

I think the battlemage slot is the only optional one here, since the alchemist could be the fire/air magic guy if you wanted them to. A rogue would be acceptable in that slot, specialized however you want (dual-wielding light weapons, missile, throwing, etc.) You could also make the battlemage a wizard if you wanted to live dangerously, but I think the extra hit points the battlemage gets are more helpful than the extra energy the wizard gets. The battlemage also has the nice bonuses for the staff/orb in hand as well as the discount to armor weight.

I think there are arguments for making the two frontliners both knights or both barbarians, depending on your tastes, but I like one of each. I don't know about the fighter; the energy assistance on the special attacks seems like it might be good end-game (especially after you get Bane) but he lacks the armor/evasion bonuses of the knight and the raw hp/str of the barbarian.

[Nikolos]

This is the party I decided to go with, and the reasoning behind it. I settled upon these guys after playing about 3 false starts, getting through Twigroot before restarting, due to being unhappy about something, so they weren't entirely blind. Also, I don't bother with cheesy strats most of the time, I generally stand and fight unless I'm in a bad situation or in danger of being surrounded.

1) Lizard Barbarian. STR/VIT, Endure Elements and Poison Immunity
I put his first two points into ARMOR and ACC, and my plan was to make this guy my tanky, stay-alive guy. If everything went bad, he would be the one who could survive longest and hopefully get away and revive everyone. My end plan is to have him Heavy Weapons + Shield.

2) Minotaur Rogue, STR/DEX, Headhunter and Aggressive.
What? Mino Rogue? Yes, because rogues are not restricted to DEX fighting. In fact, the only thing defining their class is their ability to Dual Wield with less of a penalty, and higher critting. So, this guy is going to be my front-line melee damage dealer, dual wielding 2xLight Str Weapons with a ton of strength. I put his first two points into ACC and Light Weaps, because I wanted to use the Rapier ASAP. I got him to Armor 2 first, then pushed everything into LW till level 5 and now he's dual wielding.

3) Ratling Alchemist. DEX/VIT, Mutation and Agile.
This is my ranged class, started her with Alchemy and Missile Weapons, and put everything into Alchemy. I tried firearms, I did not like them (restart #3), so she's strictly missile weapons now. I did give her 2 points in ACC though, because she runs out of ammo a lot, and some of the DEX melee weapons are nice. This is the only one I'm a bit on the fence about, because I can't decide if I should make her a melee or strictly ranged.

4) Human Wizard. WILL/VIT, Skilled and Fast Learner.
Supposedly, if you go this route, you can get most of the spells in the game. You just have to focus all +skill books on the Wizard, so that's the plan with her. I focused on Fire and Conc first, getting Conc to 3 and Fire to 5, because Fire kills everything. I almost wish I had given my Alchemist fire magic, it's so good.

I'm only about a third of the way through the game (if even that much), so maybe I built it wrong, but so far I'm really liking it. I split the armor between my two frontline guys so that they stay about the same in prot/evasion, and they live a long time, especially with the better potions. The only changes I can think of making are I might should have made the Alchemist Human, taken Skilled and Fast Learner, and pushed her into another Dmg Mage.