Most important role in a BG party

Senash

What is the most important class role you need to have in every party or even in solo runs?
Sure, you can do the game without finding traps, and just healing the damage after them, use a buffed up cleric to tank the horde of gibberlings or just rest until healed after every fight, but you gotta agree that most roles are quite important.

Keep in mind, that I'm not asking for your favourite here. I would instead like to know what's the most necessary role to have in a party? The one that you wouldn't omit from any party setups.

In the poll I'm just listing the basics. And I don't distinguish between different warrior roles (tank/melee damage dealer/ranged) as most warrior classes can do all these (kensai is not the best tank and cavalliers can only use some special throwing weapons, but they are rare exceptions).
As for mulit/dual classes, well, figure out which part of that multi-classed character is the one you prefer to have. Which role do you think you use them most, which role would you be willing to give up?
And I'm omitting support role (well this mainly goes for bards...) for obvious reasons (support needs something to support, without that, it's kind of moot...). Bards are either caster-types or warrior-types (Blade) here.

Kaltzor

Certain kinds of traps can kind of make your run short... And lock picking always helps although I don't think the game ever forces you to pick a lock to beat the game.

Senash

I think playing without a thief could be very annoying and tedious. Damage can be dealt and avoided in many ways, wounds can be healed at a temple or by potions and there's plenty of money for that in the game. But traps... Sure you can heal if you get damaged, but what about insta-kill traps? You can open locks with a mage, pickpocket with a bard, but the traps you can only find with a cleric, druid or monk. Disarming is something only a thief can do. Not to mention that there are thief specific quests in both BG and BG2, which you would have to skip without it.
And just think about it: which party member do you spend the most time with micromanaging?

Moomintroll

Getting hit by bandit arrows, instead of Charname.

Necdilzor

Someone has to keep the enemies at bay, nothing like getting your party murdered because your warriors couldn't entertain them/kill them

SamuelVarg

Where is the monk option?

the_spyder

I think it really matters what level you are talking about. At level 1, Fighters and Thieves really rule the day. By level 20, you can't survive without some kind of Arcane support. Well, maybe you can, but it is a lot easier if you have it.

Senash

@SamuelVarg Didn't make a separate option for monks. As melee dmg dealers I consider them to be in the warrior class (even though as the kensai, they also lack the ability to tank properly, until higher levels)

CaptRory

The problem is that there are ways to get around any shortfall. Maybe not GOOD ways but you can cope. Its like ripping the four legs off a chair and putting it back together as a three legged stool. So to answer the question I'm voting Mage. The wide variety of magic available means you have the best chance of tackling any challenge independent of the support of others.

OneAngryMushroom

For a truly successful party each class type must do their job. The warriors shine when they are in the mess of combat controlling how damage both given and taken as well as controlling enemy placement and attention. A thief is most valuable outside of combat disarming deadly traps and unlocking pesky locks that hide all your loot. The mages are powerful in combat controlling its flow and providing high damage output. The Clerics are essential for their buffs and healing abilities and if played right combat abilities all on top of turn dead.
In short a good party is a party with variety.

mrdeluxe

Since at the end of the day you end up stabbing things with swords/piercing things with arrows, I would probably go for a Fighter in BG1.

However… a party without a Thief is a pain in the a** (I remember one particular occasion when I dualed Imoen to a mage right after getting Coran and right before entering the Cloackwood Mines. Big mistake! Coran's finding traps/open locks sucked!). While they might not be essential, they make the experience more enjoyable.

Senash

@OneAngryMushroom I do agree with you, but if you would have to eliminate one of these roles from a party, which is the one that you would keep for sure? And if we are at it, which would be the one you would be most willing to leave out?

BelgarathMTH

I don't like the question. All four classic roles are critical to success. Early on, the only one you can do without is the arcane caster. In late game, you may be able to survive without an arcane caster, but it will be much more difficult than it needed to be if you had had one.

People have soloed the game using every possible class or class combo - but I don't think the game is really meant to be played that way. Soloing actually can be seen as a form of "cheating", since you will be much higher level than intended, and will be hogging every material resource in the game, as well as employing extensive metagame knowledge. Not to say that there's anything wrong with that, but rather that it is a different game than was originally designed, and is more an exercise in memory and problem solving than in teamwork, strategy, and group tactics.

the_spyder

The original PnP game was predicated on a 6 person party with each party member contributing something to the equation. Adventures were meant to be balanced against that dynamic (or whatever number of players you actually had). My DM would assign more than one character to players if we didn't have at least 5 members, just so we could survive.

But more recent versions of the game have been "Balanced" such that it can be more approachable from a single player perspective, more's the pity in my opinion. My personal view is that it is intended to be a social game, not a competition. Play as a group.

On the flip side, if you are having fun, play as you like. No skin off my nose. I like the group dynamic. So I play with a 5-6 member party every time.

Senash

the_spyder said:

My personal view is that it is intended to be a social game, not a competition. Play as a group.

Couldn't agree more with this. I like playing PnP, but as I've told in more posts here, I've never played PnP in any D&D, D&AD rule set. The one I played however basically allowed many classes to fill in different roles. Therefore when we sat down with my friends, we never really argued on who will play which class, but everyone played with what they wanted to play with. Sure we needed at least one or two frontliners, but sometimes it was actually a bard and a cleric (more like a priest in that rule set). Traps also weren't designed so that only a thief could disarm them.

Point is to have fun ofc, as you said And I do belive that a system is better if it doesn't have so focused typical roles which are musts in a party.

That said, I think BG can be tackled without a cleric or mage, or a pure warrior-class character, and it can even turn out to be a fun, unusual experience. And that doesn't mean to have a less than 6 member party. Just a party with let's say a thief, a T/M, a fighter tank, a Blade, a Mage and an archer.

Balrog99

Battles are won or lost with the heavy artillery!

deltago

In a party: Thief; scouting, locking picking (xp for everyone!), trap finding/disarming (xp for everyone!) allows smoother sailing.

Soloing: Arcane caster; can get through a lot of binds with magic and lvling is faster without having those meatshield's taking 5/6 the xp.

ChildofBhaal599

thieves give you the loot from those locked chests and find the traps so you don't have a fireball come from the walls and kill you. at high levels they even get one of the best HLAs, use any item. Gather some scrolls and be a mage. put on some armor and tank.

Mathmick

If it can kill things it can come with me.

Mordeus

For me it is probably the Cleric. Thieves are definitely useful for traps and locks but I greatly appreciate the ability to heal, resurrect, disable and protect.

I'm a bit of a mess when traveling, instead of disabling traps I pick the guy with the most hit point and make him run through them. Sometimes healing him, sometimes leaving him for dead (only in BG1 where there's plenty of NPCs to sacrifice).

So basically I never play without a Cleric in the party. Though I concede that Thieves are incredibly useful. Fighters and Mages aren't that important to me.

zur312

mages because they are the most OP
you can solo anyclass

but the easiest is arcane caster/multi-arcane

SCARY_WIZARD

All of them, equally in pen & paper games, but in Baldur's Gate, I have to say Thieves, because of all those traps afoot.

EntropyXII

Gotta be the thief.

Tetraploid

For me, I'd say the thief. There are plenty of inavoidable traps around, pretty capable of wiping a party out. Especially if, like me, you head to Nashkel before exploring and levelling up your vulnerable party a little.

In contrast, in BG2 I'd say the arcane spellcaster. High level spells are just too awesome not to have!

O_Bruce

All roles are equally important to me. I usually take a great satisfaction with finding my party well-balanced.

FinneousPJ

I'm assuming you mean in BGEE.

Freche

In BG1 that is.
BG2, I'd say Arcane Caster.

DJKajuru

In BG1 I'd say that warriors and priests are the most important ones. In BG2 Wizards are.

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the_spyder

@Senash - Absolutely BG can be played with less than 6 party members. And it can definitely be played with other than the 'Typical' party construction. But BG is a video game and is designed to be approachable by any number of different methods of play. Which is fine and totally acceptable.

My comments were more about how the game has 'Evolved' (if you want to call it that) away from a social 'Group' dynamic into more of a model where individual competition is more easily embraced.

But I say again, play and have fun. Whatever your method of play is. If you are having fun and not at the expense of another player, it's all good.

CoM_Solaufein

No pack mule option?