Recommended Party Composition Options

[Kraitok]

This will be my first time through and I have a question about setting up a party. From what I've heard, melee tends to be the way to actually kill things late game, while your casters are more of a debuffer and utility class rather than damage dealer right? With that in mind, what would you recommend as a basis for #fighters, mages, clerics? Keep in mind, I prefer to play a thief but it just doesnt seem like a good idea at this point.

[Shadan]

My recommendation:
- 4 melee capable characters:
dual or multi, but 3 of them with 2 weapons style and at least 3 attacks per round before any haste (single, multi warriors or dual from warrior to any class, blade)
one of them is 2hander specialist with at least 2,5-3 attacks per round (preferably, single or dual class warriors)
- 1 cleric (best is ranger7>cleric dual imho)
- 2 arcane casters (mage, sorcerer, bard, or dual/multi mage)

Imho best party for starters:
Vagrant
Berserker
Blade
dwarf F/T or human Swashi10>Fighter dual
Ranger7>cleric
Sorcerer
Necromancer

But as Sikret said: there are many good party compositions, just as an IA starter, don't do any extrem in 1st run. You can check improved items of NPCs, so you can chose some NPCs instead of custom characters.