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Trying to do IWD/HOW/ToTL with a new group. Here's the boys and girls

1/2E Cleric/Ranger
Human Fighter (dual to thief at 'X?' level)
Human Fighter (dual to druid at 'X?' level)
1/2E Bard
gnome Cl/Ill
Human Thief (dual to mage at 'X?' level).


Just entering dragon's eye right now (each pc has about 25,000 XPs). Vale of shadows wasn't too difficult. The Verbeegs were tough in the temple (they dish out a ton of damage).
Anyway, I'm feeling this group to be a little inadequate (perhaps because I'm brainwashed on 35 lv. characters from ToB). It doesn't look as if I'll have third level mage spells real quick and what happens when I have a first level druid, thief, and mage just in time for dorn's deep. A cheap back door would be dalekeeper but I don't want to use that, however, it seems this group will be ill-prepared for the path that lies ahead. Another idea I had was to export the char's and start a new game once I dual the three humans but that doesn't seem fair either. My first time through the game I played with all mono class characters and cleaned up. This bunch proves to be more of a challenge, at least, in getting to the summit. All in all, once this group maxes out they will certainly be more powerful than the first.

Exactly, I'm doing a group of 3 paladins, a fighter dualled to cleric, a thief dualled to mage and a bard.

Getting the figher to dual to cleric is tough beyond level 6 (I stopped there). Relying on 3 paladins and potions for healing is tough. Once dualled the cleric gains power quickly.

Dualling my thief at level 8 means going without thief skills in the Yuan-ti area. Very tough again. But my bard provides great spell support and the mage is learning fast. Thief skills back just in time for Dorn's deep.

Basically its tough going to begin with but your party is more powerful later on.

This is what I consider to be the most powerful powergamer party for IWD/HoW:

Paladin
Ranger
Druid dualled to fighter
Thief dualled to fighter
Fighter dualled to cleric
Fighter Dualled to mage
Bard

Paladin and Ranger have unique powers and priest/druid spells for backup cleric support. The bard is a must for instruments, bardsongs and backup mage support.

You don't need a full thief for IWD - dualling to a fighter lets you use the awesome F/T equipment out there (as well as the bonus of using all weapons, fighter backstabbing etc.). Max out traps and locks and stealth will take care of itself. The bard will pickpockets if you really need it.

Druid to fighter gives you the kick-A druid spells without the limits of a full druid (poor level advancement benefits) as you develop later as a fighter.

The fighter dualled to cleric gives you better HP and proficiency with weapons. Ditto for the mage - you also get to use whatever weapons you want (and mastery until you dual).

The Ranger could be substituted for a straight figher. The Druid/fighter could be a Ranger. Fighter/Cleric could also be a multi R/C (and the D/F changed to a Fighter ).

Mage could be Multi F/M too.

Phew!

Here is my 2 cents...

I have ploayed through IWD several times, and the easiest party i had was...

Female Gnome Fighter
Male Halfling Fighter
Female 1/2 elf fighter/druid
Male elf fighter
Male halfling thief
Male 1/2 elf f/m/c

First of all, the race selections were purely random...i used a d & D character generator to come up with them. In fact, Since the first time i played, every party thereafter has been 'random'. This combo worked best for me! If you want to know a HARD combo...try

Male gnome thief
Male dwarf thief
Male human thief
Male dwarf F/t
Female human fighter
Male Human Thief

I randomly got this party, and could only beat the game at the 'easy' difficulty setting. Had to buy ALOT of potions and visit the temple frequently!

If I had to come up with a 'power gamers' party, then I would try..

Human/dwarf fighter
Human Paladin
half elf fighter/druid
Cleric
Mage (specialist...invoker or nocromancer)
M/T

In this group you get every spell ability, good combat ability, and good offensive spell casting. You may want to consider making the cleric a fighter first, but you want to make sure you can max out the cleric's level...it works wonders with the many undead you face. I also could not justify a 'pure theif', although a thief combo class is helpful.

Hope this helps!