A Dwarven Barbarian would be more fun and useful unless you need a DD due to difficulty enhancing mods.
I want a Dwarven Defender because I figure tanking is an important job, so I might as well get the best man for the job. Maybe there will be a situation in which someone will need to block a passageway. Having the best tank possible means taking less total damage for your Clerics to heal. I agree that Barbarian Rage is generally more fun than Defensive Stance, but when you need that +50% resistance to Physical damage and +2 to saving throws on a plate-armor-wearing giant-shield-bearing naturally-resistant ocean of health, it's Defensive Stance that will be the more fun one. They're both worthy candidates.
Assuming BG, three main frontliners is plenty. Especially since you have the thief type as another source of muscle (swashbucklers and fighter/thieves are strong frontliners, and assassins can do tons of damage with poison weapon). Assuming IWD, you may want to lean towards the tankier thief versions, and it's worth considering taking a druid instead of the cleric/illusionist. That's just because the two games have very different encounter styles and somewhat different spell lists, and so they tend to favor different parties. Having said that, your party would do fine in either game. "Perfect" is a higher bar, and a harder one to even find, but you wouldn't find yourself weak.
Barbarian isn't a terribly flexible character, he more or less just stabs enemies until they fall down, and you already have a Dwarven Defender who does basically the same thing. I'd pick one out of the two and then make the 3rd character a dual-classed Fighter/Mage type, or even a Skald. They'll also be able to chip in on the front lines but they'll give you the option of casting spells when fights require a bit more finesse.
EDIT: Should have checked if I was necro-ing a thread. Sorry!
Personnally, I think Shadowdancer is the best thief kit. Hide in plain sight gives you unlimited backstabs in a fight. The problem is they don't have set trap, but you can use your thief/cleric if you want that. With 2 thieves that can hide in shadow, I don't know if it's worthwhile to have a ranger (archer). You can get a vanilla fighter with heavier armor and grand mastery in both ranged and melee and it will be more versatile.
@sparrow13x There's nothing wrong with so-called "thread necromancy". The original poster (me) isn't the only person who is allowed to be interested in the subject. You're obviously still interested, as is @Francois, as are others. And I agree with what you're saying, I did change my mind about having both a Dwarven Defender and a Barbarian. Decided that this party is closer to perfect: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/42619 Feel free to comment there as well.
Really, any party will do, it's really not about what is better or worse. All you really need is the basics - 1 mage. 1 cleric or druid. 1 thief, and some stocking stuffers.
Have fun with the rest and keep up with your great character developments! @vladpen
I like playing sorcer and a back up mage - Imoen or illusionist/their.
Having an Inquisitor makes mage troubles easy in BG. Normally have you grind high level magic users down with Breach and spell defense stricking because Disbel Magic won't work. But if your Paladin fights with two handed wepons - get use to fallowing behind your more sturdy front line fighters or stay back and shoot, especially in TOB.
I would diffinitly recommend a barabarian or even a tad better - beserker fighter. Barbarians have a (-4) worse AC then BF, and also have True Weapon Mastery implemented, with the extra 1/2 attack.
if your a two handed wepons fighter, get use to fallowing behind your more sturdy front line fighters or get use to a misile weapon.
Indeed, I eventually decided that the Inquisitor should definitely wield a 2H considering that the Barbarian is a little faster than him, and will get there slightly faster with his dual axes.
A little more thread necromancy for my 2 cents. I liked much the party of the OP post, liked the background story and the composition. I usually play very different parties (and I only play BG2, so don't trust me for IWD), small parties filled of arcane casters, usually multi, usually versatile and capable to cover multiple roles. Parties that I don't suggest you. Imo your is perfect to begin to play, 3 strong front liners and a ranged damage dealer, you can do it with a lot less and don't really need more. A mage, a single class one to level up fast (as is possible in a party of 6), to learn and experiment with arcane magic, a sorcerer is not the way to go to learn, is the way to go when you already know (or better one of the ways to go). Someone say that only one is not enough, I, that usually have all toons arcane casters, tell that is enough, if helped by 4 hard hitters. At the beginning having too much casters lead to spam spells, usually not so useful, only one spell/round teach to chose which more wisely. Consider that a solo mage can easily solo the game, also super modded. The power of a mage is only related on how well you use it. With a mage you can try all the spells, and are forced to use them well. Having an inquisitor, the antimage paladin, make a second mage ever less useful.
And last but not least the C/M. fantastic! people say that a F/C is a stronger fighter, I agree. They say that T/M is a fantastic class, true. But you have already 4 very strong damage dealers, you need another? And if you don't have experience I bet that the main use of T/M will be multiple no risk no hassle backstabs using an arcane spell (I don't want to spoil which one). Powerful? Shure. Funny and a good way to learn how to use well a thief? Imho not at all, can be funny a couple of times, then get boring, no challenge no fun.... C/M lack APR, he starts with one and at cap level still have one. But he have a lot of utility for the party. As a thief scout, disable traps and open locks, and you where correct in the OP post about how useful is that clerical spell in doing it. But also set traps, and if you avoid easy tactics setting traps can become an art and be very powerful. After scouting and discovering the enemies you set the traps and have them follow you, easy to tell, not so easy to do. But you can soften or even kill the toughest enemies, with a fair rogue tactic. And Dispell Illusions, every invisible enemy, mages and thieves, that can backstab, made visible with a skill, at will, as many time you want. What an help to your mage. Backstabbing, they don't have the THACO? A thief can usually backstab well, a cleric has an even better Thaco. And has spells to give himself a huge strength bonus, In BG2 he can easily reach 25 STR (+7 THACO, +14 damage). The STR damage is not multiplied by the backstab, but he has also a spell to roll the maximum damage every hit, and staves are very good backstabbing weapons. And as a cleric is much more than a healer, a lot of useful spells for the party. At the end of the game he will not have the most of the kills, but will be the more useful toon of the party (together with the mage). 2 classes that merge well without one prevailing on the others.
I suppose that your game has started from a long time, but for a future new run I will give it a try.
Comments
1. Inquisitor
2. Dwarven Defender
3. Archer
4. Sorcerer
5 & 6: Cleric/Illusionist & Fighter/Thief for BG, Druid & Cleric/Thief for IWD
EDIT: Should have checked if I was necro-ing a thread. Sorry!
Feel free to comment there as well.
Dwarven Defender, Cavalier or Undead Hunter and an Archer.
It's just deciding on a thief and cleric or druid who fit. My Caster will either be a Dragon Disciple or an Invoker most likely
Have fun with the rest and keep up with your great character developments! @vladpen
Having an Inquisitor makes mage troubles easy in BG. Normally have you grind high level magic users down with Breach and spell defense stricking because Disbel Magic won't work. But if your Paladin fights with two handed wepons - get use to fallowing behind your more sturdy front line fighters or stay back and shoot, especially in TOB.
I would diffinitly recommend a barabarian or even a tad better - beserker fighter. Barbarians have a (-4) worse AC then BF, and also have True Weapon Mastery implemented, with the extra 1/2 attack.
I liked much the party of the OP post, liked the background story and the composition. I usually play very different parties (and I only play BG2, so don't trust me for IWD), small parties filled of arcane casters, usually multi, usually versatile and capable to cover multiple roles. Parties that I don't suggest you.
Imo your is perfect to begin to play, 3 strong front liners and a ranged damage dealer, you can do it with a lot less and don't really need more. A mage, a single class one to level up fast (as is possible in a party of 6), to learn and experiment with arcane magic, a sorcerer is not the way to go to learn, is the way to go when you already know (or better one of the ways to go). Someone say that only one is not enough, I, that usually have all toons arcane casters, tell that is enough, if helped by 4 hard hitters. At the beginning having too much casters lead to spam spells, usually not so useful, only one spell/round teach to chose which more wisely. Consider that a solo mage can easily solo the game, also super modded. The power of a mage is only related on how well you use it. With a mage you can try all the spells, and are forced to use them well. Having an inquisitor, the antimage paladin, make a second mage ever less useful.
And last but not least the C/M. fantastic! people say that a F/C is a stronger fighter, I agree. They say that T/M is a fantastic class, true. But you have already 4 very strong damage dealers, you need another? And if you don't have experience I bet that the main use of T/M will be multiple no risk no hassle backstabs using an arcane spell (I don't want to spoil which one). Powerful? Shure. Funny and a good way to learn how to use well a thief? Imho not at all, can be funny a couple of times, then get boring, no challenge no fun....
C/M lack APR, he starts with one and at cap level still have one. But he have a lot of utility for the party. As a thief scout, disable traps and open locks, and you where correct in the OP post about how useful is that clerical spell in doing it. But also set traps, and if you avoid easy tactics setting traps can become an art and be very powerful. After scouting and discovering the enemies you set the traps and have them follow you, easy to tell, not so easy to do. But you can soften or even kill the toughest enemies, with a fair rogue tactic.
And Dispell Illusions, every invisible enemy, mages and thieves, that can backstab, made visible with a skill, at will, as many time you want. What an help to your mage.
Backstabbing, they don't have the THACO? A thief can usually backstab well, a cleric has an even better Thaco. And has spells to give himself a huge strength bonus, In BG2 he can easily reach 25 STR (+7 THACO, +14 damage). The STR damage is not multiplied by the backstab, but he has also a spell to roll the maximum damage every hit, and staves are very good backstabbing weapons.
And as a cleric is much more than a healer, a lot of useful spells for the party.
At the end of the game he will not have the most of the kills, but will be the more useful toon of the party (together with the mage).
2 classes that merge well without one prevailing on the others.
I suppose that your game has started from a long time, but for a future new run I will give it a try.