Hey, so im thinking of playing through tactics for the first time, with a mainly self created party... just wanted your thoughts on must have PC's, and possible party set up's.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Cheers, T

It really depends on your playing style. I lean towards a tank-heavy party, but I find that Tactics require more magic than the standard game.

A potential powerful party:

Multi ranger/cleric
Inquisitor
Sorcerer
Multi fighter/thief
Archer
Multi fighter/mage

This is just to get the ball rolling here - there's many other good party combinations.

I must say, with all respect, that I've never understood the urge to play Tactics but to make it easier with things like item upgrade or an all-PC party. It seems to contradict the reason to play it. But on a more helpful note:

Make sure you have a thief with points in detect illusion. One of the standard contingencies on mages is a host of illusion spells and a SI:divination. Jan, or a character built like him, is extremely useful.

Have more than one person capable of tossing out Breach (I like to have 3, but Splunge's 2 would work fine).

The rest you'll figure out as you go.

Splunge's party is almost my modified Shadow Keeper party. So I'll agree with his. It is an overpowered arangement though, so you will lose alot of the 'annoying' challenge of Tactics. I have played with the ingame NPC's and they do fine with lots of reloads :D As Eric says, detect illusions is one of the thief's most overlooked abilities and will save you alot of time if you have it.

For my recommended party though:

Fighter/Druid
Fighter/Thief
Inquisitor
Ranger/Cleric
Dual Beserker/Mage
Sorcerer

As you can see, its not too different from Splunge's ;)

To chime in as well, I am very similar to Malovae and Splung when it comes to this powergaming party.

Inquisitor
F/M
F/T
Sorcerer
R/C

My sixth slot varies, although I tend to prefer a blade there to the archer or the berserker/mage that the others have. I feel that a bard's natural quick progression makes him invaluable in the beginning. By the end, he's more support, but can cast breach, use ranged weapons effectively, and can be a complete menace on his own.

Sometimes, I'll put a monk in the sixth slot, just because I like to wind up with two basically magic resistant characters (the Inquisitor has Carsomyr, the cloak of balduran from whichever mod has the lich in the docks add on, and a couple of other minor MR items and the monk gets there on his own with maybe a potion or two).

Because that sixth slot is not too essential, I can also try out classes I don't usually use, such as the various druid subclasses, or add in another tank like an undead hunter and cavalier, who will ultimately dual wield Purifier and something else.

Thanks for the input people.

I think I'll definately be taking an inquisiter, a sorcerer and a ranger/cleric. And probably a kensai thief dual and possibly Solaufein, as i have not tried him out yet but have heard good things. The 6th slot... well who knows! Possibly a beserker. Just got to get this final Ascention battle out of the way first!

you really don't need a thief...their ability can be compensated with spells, so I would say;

Inquistor
Berserker
Berserker
Ranger/Cleric (Not Fighter Cleric, they have fewer spells)
Sorcerer
Sorcerer

This is by far the most powerful party...

First of all, no spell can take the place of backstabbing. You don't get to backstab mages in Tactics as much as you do in unmodded, but it's still a great skill to have. And detect illusion is far, far, far superior to the combination of spells necessary to magically dispel illusion spells. It's the simplest thing in the world to turn one of those berserkers into a fighter/thief.

I'm really not convinced,

You don't need the dispell illusion ability from the Thief if you have the Inquistor dispel ability.

And at the moment that you Thief can succesfully hit a spellcaster with a backstab, a Bersekerer can chop one down in a couple of secs..

The thing that makes the Berserker better is is that the Berseker can take far more damage, has better saving throws and has a very very useful ability...

So why can you better have a Fighter/Thief??
It's really a waste of raw power.

You are mistaken for two reasons, one of which I did not make sufficiently clear in my last post. I agree that mages "can't" be backstabbed, or aren't worth it anymore, thanks to the spell protections they use. When I said backstabbing was still handy, I meant as a skill for backstabbing other things. Killing a greater wolfwere in a single shot is not a waste of power, especially when several greater wolfweres are attacking your group. Mae'Var's assassins have a lot of hit points and it is not a waste of power to kill one of them quickly. It is also a very handy skill to have in Jon's dungeon, where you must kill the greater otyugh as quickly as possible, or deal with his carrion crawlers (and his own powers of slow and poison). I could go on, but the point is that backstabbing retains its usefulness despite losing its former #1 target, mages.

I love the inquisitor's dispel power, and I frequently don't take Keldorn because his dispel makes the game so much easier. But there are several details to the inquisitor's dispel that make it inferior to detect illusion. The first is that, as a dispel magic, it will knock out your own protections (if you are close enough). Second, dispel magic does not take down SI:Abjuration, and therefore does not do any good against the advanced scripts that use SI:Ab, SI:Div, and illusion spells. Third, it has a casting time and can be interrupted. It is simpler to park an invisible Jan (or your own thief) near the mage and knock out his illusion spells just by pressing F4. And of course the invisibility Jan uses is unlimited and takes up no spell slots.

Before this gets any more off topic, I concede that you can play though Tactics without a thief in your group, and do just fine. This is a mod that can be soloed, after all. But the thief class does bring things to the table that spells and inquisitors cannot fully account for.

Yeah, i've recently played through a game with just myself, kensai mage, keldorn and kelsey. Even though the lack of thief was not much of an issue, the detect illusion ability is very handy... and just for simpler gameplay detecting traps and unlocking doors and chests (without knock) is much more convenient.
I'll definately say theres no need for a single class thief, but to me a multi or dual fighter thief has many benefits a pure fighter class can't offer.
Even so, personal preferences and all that!

Yep, personal preferences....

BTW, use Powerwords to kill those Greater Werewolves

Well, after reading this (http://www.sorcerers.net/ubb/ultimatebb.php?/topic/10/3472.html) thread, I decided to go through tactics with the following party:
Wizard Slayer / Thief (PC) --> Half-orc, dual wielding long swords and strong with daggers as well (quietus, item upgrade mod :) )
Korgan --> Axes, war hammers. Will dual wield when he gets 2-3 stars in two weapon style
Jaheria --> Clubs. Pitchwife +5 (item upgrade) and slings. Later may use staffs (of woodlands)
Edwin --> Staffs and Daggers (for throwing)

So far, it's been pretty smooth sailing.
Though I did give Jaheria some SK stat boosts, and made her a fighter / totemic druid (MC).

I know that's with NPC's, but I thought I'd offer that advice because I am sailing cleanly through. (except for bloody Faldorn. I think I'm going to unistall that part :p )