So I want to finally beat IWD2 - I always start, but never push it all the way, but I've decided to go all the way this time.

I want to try a themed party (not interested in most powerful party just most fun and RPGish to play) with a 4 man party (always felts that 5 or 6 is a crwod), my ideas were - I know there are many, but I would like you guys to vote for your favorite then I'll choose accordingly :)

A- Nature's Allies
1 Pure Class Ranger Melee Specialist - human
1 Ranger Dualled Rogue, ranged weapons specialist - the hunter - half-elf
1 Pure Class Druid (human aasimar)
1 Druid dualled Sorcerer (enchanteress of sorts) - elf
=> a party seeking Balance and Protectors of the wild and Nature. Despise goblins and orcs and trolls, it is why they want to help Targos

B- The Bannished Tribesmen (all half orcs)
1 Pure Barbarian - 2 handed wepons only
1 Pure Calls Barbarian - 1 handed axes only
1 Cleric dualled mage - Shaman
1 Barbarian dualled Druid
=> evil party, interested in wealth, banished from their lands after their tribe was exterminated. They escaped and landed in Targos.

C- Shire Folk (all halfling)
1 Rogue Fighter
1 Mage Fighter
1 Pure Rogue
1 Cleric Bard
=> From the Shire ( ;) ) looking for adventure

D- Divine Justice (all human lawful good)
1 Pure Paladin
1 Fighter Cleric
1 Pure Cleric
1 Pure Cleric
=> Goddy two shoes. No arcane magic, but lots of DIvine.

E- Wandering Dwarves (all dwarves)
1 Pure Fighter
1 Pure Cleric
1 Pure Mage
1 Cleric Rogue
=> Just a group of bad attitude dwarves looking to get rich

F- Best of Little People
1 Dwarf Fighter
1 Halfling Rogue Mage
1 Gnome Sorcerer
1 Dwarf Cleric Fighter
=> coallition of small folk looking to prove that size dosen't matter

Arcane casters should be of pure class!
Divine casters can have one fighter-lvl mixed in but not more.
This is so that they gain high enough spell lvls to be both effective and fun to play with!

A and E (and to some extend B) are the only ones that have both high lvl arcane and divine magic.

The most fun party would be B or E if somewhat modified:

B:
Barbarian
Barbarian1/cleric, Barbarian1/druid or any fighter-type char (like another barbarian) this would be good as both backup-fighter and backup healer.
Barb1/clericx or Barb1/druidX (can also be pure cleric or druid) - your medicineman
pure mage - could be sorc instead. you'll have to max int/cha (for wiz or sorc) and put the 3 first the lvl-up ability points in int/cha since you'll need the main casting ability to be 10+X to be able to cast an X lvl spell. try to reach 19 on that just to be safe.

E:
Looks good as it is but the cleric/rogue can be tricky if badly built.
You could also exchange the mage for a gold dwarf sorc but that is not a must.

Thanks for the tips!

So I actually went with option A, adding a 5th character, Painbearer of Illmater - playing the game without a cleric is tough be it just for the healing, and I don't feel like resting all the time! ;)

So here's the group:

- 1 Ranger pure Class: melee tank build. I'll probably use two handed wepons with a preference for Spears and Staves or greatswords - more rangery.

- 1 Rogue to be dualled Ranger - 2 for one so 1 Ranger Level per 2 Rogue ones. Tiefling race, high dex, above avg STR and INT. main archer, disabler, lock picker, etc. Gave him expertise so I'll use him as a decoy as well.

- 1 Druid - to be dualled Sorcerer. Aasimar, high INT, WIS, and CHA. Main caster and group communicator. High Bluff, Intimindate, Diplomacy, etc... I'm thinking 1 level Druid, 1 Level Sorc kind of progression.

- 1 Fighter to be dualled Druid: 3 levels of fighter for one level Druid. No very high stats highest is 15 for CON. A la Jaheira type char.

- 1 Cleric Painbearer of Illmater (perhaps will get a few mage levels to use scrolls): High INT, WIS, CHA. Low rest. Main healer.

I just cleared the Docks, so I'm just getting started.

Nr 1, 2 and 5 looks good. The druid/sorc would be much better and fun to play if you keep him pure sorcerer. The fighter/druid would be best if you only take 1 fighter lvl. You can still use him as a fighter but that won't cripple your spell casting abilities as much. A druid is only slightly worse than a pure fighter at meleeing.