this thread has eluded me, and i just LOVE party planning threads...
you seem to have a well-rounded pary, with the basic tank-scout-priest-mage-thief-bard layout, and with good stats, without those distatestfull cha 20, wis 5, int 3 paladins...
here's a couple of comments on your band of heroes:
the monk: if you will give him 8 Int, he'll not have enough skill points to become a decent scout: you need 2/lvl, for Hide AND Move Silently. I suggest moving some points from Wis to Int - it's not like Wis is THAT important to the monk (the -1 on Stunning Fist DC and AC are not less important than -1 to hit on EVERY ATTACK, anyway), plus there are items that increase wis, enough for both your cleric and your monk. the alternative is to make him human, as you suggested, but that would result in points taken away from the important stats.
the bard: you'll want a better Int for your talker... 16 is more than enough, and you'll never notice the difference between 14 and 16 Dex on a caster/singer.
the paladin/fighter: exellent build, i had one char like this exactly. very in-character with the dwarven stereopype *cough* gimli *cough* "...me axe'll do the orcslain', ye worry 'bout keeping me ale protected in me backpack..." you may want to downgrade Wis there. I found that plaldin spells are just a lot of hassle, and not really worth the trouble... in fact, it might be better for this char to become a Pal2/FtrX, instead of the more convetional Ftr4/PalX. You won't see the difference in roleplaying - i mean, are a martially trained paldin and a divinely protected fighter THAT different? And the fighter levels will allow you to specialize in all the weapons this char will need, for every situation. Him being your main tank, you REALLY WANT those high Str and Con... I'd say, even at the expence of some Cha points. There are a couple of early available items that boost Cha. you may evevn want it to be an un-even score, bth for those items and for Eagle's Splendor. oh, and pal2/ftrX can take 1 monk level, which will allow him to use the two wonderfull monk items
that your single-class monk will proboaly not use anyway.
the rogue: you'll need a high Int on your rogue, as well as, and maybe even more than, high Dex (search and disable device both use Int for bonuses for skill checks). but it's not really a problem, as you can easily divert 2 points from Str and 2 points from Con there. this char is also an EXELLENT candidate to take 4 fighter levels and become the real sniper of your party, with specialisations in ranged weapon/s, and for those times that you both want AND are able to pull off an important sneak attack, he will be better suited for it than a single-classed rogue, with the fighter levels actually giving him better HP's, To Hit, Fort. save, etc. bonuses than the points "taken from" his Str and Con would.
the cleric and the wizard both are solid builds with good stats. i highly recommend low-level multiclassing (1 level) for the casters, to agument their abilities, but it's not a must.
