What is your party composition?

[CTSparky]

Last night after our gaming session I had a small talk with our DM. I told him that WotC made an executive decision for 3-3.5 to make it standard 4 player party for reasons of continuing the game (Only need 5 to play the game) where as in the old days on P&P and in computer games it was always a 6 player party.

That being said I think that our current composition of characters is not the most well balanced in the world. This tread is not to rip on our selection (which have all heard before) but for you to sound off on what your current party selection is and in an ideal world what you think it should be.

Our party:
Sorc 10/ Dragon Disciple 1
Paladin 9/ Rogue 1
Rogue 10/ Nightsong Enforcer 2
Ranger 10
NPC: Cleric 10

Again the questions are:
What is your current party composition?
What do you think an ideal party composition (for 4 players, and 6 players)

 

[Barak]

Off the top of my head, my players currently play..

A Half-minotaur fighter/Dispater PrC 6/3
Half-minotaur/half-orc Cleric 9
Hobgoblin fighter/rogue 4/5
Dwarven Scout 9
Dwarven barbarian 9

There's time they really, really miss arcane magic. But their melee damage output makes me cry often.

 

[llamatron2000]

I'm using generic classes and a modified skillset. Anyways, here's what my party's currently like. Note that not everyone shows up for every game. Half of us work at the same store, so it screws our schedules sometimes.

In my current game:

Derek, Human Warrior 2/Spellcaster 1. Dual-wielder, BO9S Shadow, sneak attacks, stealth skills.
Simon, Human Spellcaster 3. Sun domain, turns undead. Heals. Worthless in melee. Knowledge skills.
Leon, Human Spellcaster 3. Nuke-focused, with melee feats. Crafting and Repair skills.
Xantis, Half-Elf Spellcaster 3. Healing domain, utility spells. Dungeon-Delving skills.
Dorran, Elf Expert 3. Sneak attacks, Dungeon-Delving, Stealth, and Combat skills.
Ragic, Dwarf Warrior 3. Extremely high Fortitude, Power attacker. Astronomically high Athletics.

I feel this is a decent enough party composition. They have two frontline fighters, one of whom is a tank, the other, able to set up flanks with Island of Blades. They've got three mages, all of whom can heal to varying degrees, one of which is going to wade into melee after a few turns. They've got a versatile fighter in the expert, who's at home at range or in melee, too. Their roles tend to overlap, though each has something they're better at than the others. I like it. The composition as it is now gives them ample supplies to do things, but forces them to think about the way they'd like to complete it.

 

[Stormborn]

The group I run in Ptolus has two players playing two PCs each for the first time and one seems to be handeling it really well, the other is still adjusting. Right now we have:

Grailwarden Male Dwarf Urban Druid 4
Imperial Human Paladin 3/Fighter 1 (headed for Fist of Raziel PrC from BoED)
Uraqui Human Female Ninja 4
Male Litorian Duskblade 3/Litorian 1 (using racial levels from AU/AE rather than Ptolus version)

They do just fine. Deal heavy damage (when they hit). The Ninja covers stealth and trapfinding well, the dwarf uses wands for healing, the duskblade has utility spells and offensive ones. The main thing i am worried about as they gain levels is their ability to effect multiple enemies at once. I have already pretty much figured out that they can deal with EL 5 encounters without much difficulty, as long as its not a larger group that uses good tactics or the terrain chokes them off from fighting effectively. Undead were an issue around levels 1 and 2, but they seems to be able to deal now.

EDIT: Until recently i had 3 players in the group and typically only 3 PCs with on again off again NPC support and cohorts and such at higher levels (either paid or through the leadership feat). They delt with most situations just fine too. While things are assumed to have a party of 4 (and one of specific composition) the game can work just fine with any number of any type of PC.

 

[GrumpyOldMan]

Current party is only three people:
Man at Arms
Squire
Member of the Guild of Arcane Lore

No ‘levels’ or ‘classes’ or hit points, because I’m not playing DnD

 

[Masquerade]

Skarn Hexblade 2 / Wizard 2
Skarn Samurai 2 / Shugenja 2
Human Soulknife 4
Human Druid 4
Rilkan Urban Ranger 4
Goron Marshal 2 / Warmage 2

 

[mhensley]

Ptolus campaign - all 4th level:

human wizard
human wizard
human cleric
halfling rogue
litorian ranger

 

[delericho]

Started a new campaign on Wednesday, came out with:

Dwarf Fighter 1
Dwarf Wizard 1
Human Cleric (Pelor) 1

I'm hoping to add a fourth player to the group.

Personally, I hope that when Wizards develop 4e, they take into account the fact that only 'most' groups have 4 players + DM. Adding a couple of extra players above 4 is easy, but dropping even to just 3 players causes gaps to appear in the party composition.

 

[Piratecat]

Our current mix is pretty good. We're a little short on ranged offense, but not hideously so.

(Ignoring home-brewed and obscure prestige classes)

Human paladin 21.
Human paladin 12 / hunter of the dead 10.
Githzerai monk 21.
Human cleric 23.
Half-human, half-undead psion 21.
Halfling diviner 12 / alienist 10.

There are also two cohorts - an angelic Champion (from Monte's AE, a lot like a devoted defender) and a ranger/archer.

 

[glass]

What is your current party composition?

human gestalt duskblade 2:fighter 1/swashbuckler 1

halfling gestalt rogue 2:artificer 2

human gestalt wizard 2:swordsage 2

human gestalt druid 2:barbarian 2

They are currently halfway through The Whispering Cairn (first part of AoW), and inspite of some pretty awful rolling they are doing OK, although the lack of a cleric might hurt them later on. That said, the duskblade's player is talking about creating a cleric:something as a backup 'in case his current character get killed', which I have a feeling might become a self-fullfilling prophecy!


glass.