GameBanshee Forums

Okay.. (1) I like party interaction. (2) I like my characters to be powerful and high leveled.

So, I'm trying to find the optimal number of characters in a party. Obviously, 6 is a bit of an XP sink. Two characters is just silly (for most players at least). Therefore, I'm looking for a healthy balance.

What number would you say that balance is? 4? 5?

Whatever floats your boat. I still prefer 6, because I can get maximum party interaction. And I go for every quest, so I get pretty good levels per character.

Thanks Fable. I guess I just wanted someone to tell me that a 6 person party wasn't "doomed" or that it sucked..

I like interactions *sticks with his 6 person party now*

I don't know how much high-level you want your characters to be, but consider that even with a 5 member party you will be reaching 2950000 by the end of Underdark if you do every quest. It means that either you won't level up anymore or you will be getting HLAs if you have ToB installed. No matter what, IMO it will make for a dull late game simply because you will be too strong for the oposition.
You could install the Tactics mod in an atempt to balance things out, but the mod has the side effect of adding even more XP rewards to the mix. There was a game I did not finish, where I was playing a 6 men party and was getting HLAs in Spellhold!
However, I can see the benefits of dropping a Comet on Gaal's head

*is very reassured*

Yay ^_^

Well..

Actually, with 6 you can still max out EXP in SoA, you just have to do more. My last (Vanilla) go-through, we had some HLAs for the final fights in SoA with a full party, and I'd shuffled a few extraneous NPCs through as well.

As Leonardo said, the Tactics mod adds both challenge and EXP (and loot)

Don't let the dweebs get you down - play the party you like.

I find that 4 characters is optimal. The party is large enough to take care of itself but small enough to level up quickly. Also, you have two free slots so that you can rotate other NPCs if you want to do their quests, or have them interact with other party members on a short-term basis.

There is a thread around here that discusses a party of 3 but that seems a little too austere for my taste. Sometimes it is good to have 2 tanks and two archers/spell casters.

With a party of four one of the good things is that you can more easily maneuver through the dungeons without people bumping into eachother, melee characters getting stuck in the back etc.

However, I like having two meleers (for the front row), The next two characters a cleric or druid and a thief, both still able to pitch in a bit in melee if needed, and the back row an archer and a mage for long range bombardment.

In any case, I really don't like having less than two meleers. Things get through and attack my mages and thieves... can't have that now can we?

My smallest party was a 4 character one: Me Fighter/Thief the rest Korgan, Viconia and Edwin.

But as I play this game for my own amusement, and I am amused by the NPCs, I'll most likely play with 6 characters.

Rav

4 or 5

This is not to gain more power (which is a side-effect anyway), it's an attempt to
gain a more fulfilling control over the party.
If you have ToB installed, soon, or at least in ToB itself, every character will have
countless abilities, weapons, spells...
This annoys me, it gets too confusing and you never use them to their full extent.

A four men party may be immensely more effective in this regard.
Five if you want more banters, but six, hey, that's too many for me

Anyway, SoA with duo party, + new ToB-NPC added 'till the end, was my best run ever

I'm currently playing a party of 4
Myself (Ranger/Cleric)
Mazzy
Aerie
Imoen

I now have max XP with all (just finished Sendai's Enclave) and its getting a bit too easy, maybe I should set the difficulty level to hard or insane....
Demogorgon was a joke, I should really have installed the improved version.

I depends, but 4 single classses is my minimum for a funn game,
and when you don't remove the xp.cap I wouldn't take less.

But I once finished with 6 character (3 multi-class) without to many problems

For me the increased interaction between the NPC is great, but sometimes if I go with more than 4 characters I find myself not using them to their full ability. Soloing is on the other extreme; you HAVE to use your full arsenal, unless you're a sorceror and use project image extensively. Somewhere in between lies the sweet point. I like the feeling of having finished a challenging battle "tired" with most spells and abilities spent. Less characters usually means more planning/tactical considerations as well, which I enjoy.

I'd go with 4 or 5, but then after I'm done I'll choose a less cheesy class and run through the game with 6. Then perhaps go solo. BGII is great in terms of flexibility and replayability

BGII is great in terms of flexibility and replayability

Amen to that. I took a 6 month vacation from BG and I am just getting back into it.

I am going to take a party including NPCs that I rarely played with. Namely:

-Jan
-Viconia
-Edwin
-Haer Dalis

-and me - I was thinking of an inquisitor - but I have played with Keldorn before. So maybe I could try a berserker or barbarian - choices, choices...