First off, kudos to GOG for making this series available. I played the original Eye of the Beholder way back in the day so this is pure nostalgia for me. Sadly, I never was able to purchase and play parts 2 and 3.

I am planning on doing a full run through on all 3 games with the same party imported into 2 and 3. I tried searching the web for information on what would be the best party to carry through all 3 games and unfortunately I can not find any information on party composition. I was able to find where someone stated that a thief is pretty much required for part 3, but don' know if this is true because they did not provide specifics.

Does anyone have any ideas for a party that would be able to go through all 3 games and be able to pretty much handle every puzzle, monster, and secret?

My initial thought is Dwarven Fighter, Half Elf Fighter/Thief, Human Cleric, Elf Mage. Does anyone know if this will work? I'd hate to get a party all the way to part 2 or 3 and realize I am missing a certain character class that impedes the full experience of the series. Also, I thought about doing a Human Mage since they can get to Level 20 in part 3, whereas an Elf Mage maxes out at Level 18. I also read that Humans level faster than other races but I can't seem to confirm if this is true or not.

Any information or thoughts are greatly appreciated.

My choice of party is generally a combo of Paladin (at least one), plus Fighter/Thief in the front, Cleric and Mage or two Cleric/Mages in the middle, with ranged characters (spell/bow/daggers/darts/spears/whatever) in the fifth and sixth slots.
The squishy Cleric/Mages can do a lot of damage, plus they each get poison/paralyzation/curse removal and healing spells, at the expense of not reaching the highest level possible. This doesn't really matter, because you can recruit two more characters in each game, and another single class caster (or a Thief/any if you didn't create one) or two is a great choice.

Splitting the frontline classes doesn't matter as much, since they are basically meatshields. If you go with a Paladin in the front, they will not be able to use a shield and sword and holy symbol at the same time, same for anyone using a pair of swords, no shield. I think the shield is the more important piece of kit for a better defense.

Ultimately, the 'best' classes to play are the ones you find fun. Don't be afraid to experiment and try new things, it's only a game, and the first EoB is short enough to replay a few times to figure out what you do and don't like.

That's a good party. My memory is extremely hazy on 3, but it's good (though not mandatory) to have a thief in 2, and it is extremely beneficial for one's peace of mind to have a create-food-and-water-capable cleric. Hold on to lockpicks, food and equipment in general, there are no stores to replenish supplies. (There are occasional experience farms, but everything else is limited.)

Thank you to everyone who has responded to my post. I am looking forward to getting this run started. I think I am going to start with the party I mentioned above for the first run. I will undoubtedly switch up in future runs by including Paladin and Ranger, for example.

@Banichi - I completely forgot about the extra 2 members you pick up along the way in the games. Thanks for the reminder! That definitely takes some of the pressure off trying to create the "perfect" party.

@Starmaker - I have always included a single class cleric and mage in the runs I used to do for EoB 1. As you mentioned, the Create Food and Water spell always came in handy. Even though if my memory serves me correctly, there is a high number of rations that can be found in the first game. However, those take up valuable inventory space which can be better used for magic items. Even without that one spell, the healing and buffs from the Cleric are a must imo.

Thanks again for all the replies!

That information was incorrect.

There is a part, where a thief can 'unstuck' a lever with his lockpicks in EOB3, but you can get the same effect with just anybody using brute force against said lever after drinking a strength potion, which happen to lie around. There is also the possibility to recruit an NPC with thiefing abilities in EOB3.

In EOB2 there a certain doors, that can only be picked, since there exists no key for them, which lead to an interesting (dead) character (which can be revived). But then again the game offers you the opportunity to recruit an NPC with thiefing abilities, to get the job done. But you may have to reload a few times to figure out how it's done, because that NPC won't stay for long. :-) Or you could take a look here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqnYM-j1lug

Long story short: The games offer you everything that you need to gain access to everything within the games. You cannot block yourself from content by chosing the 'wrong' classes. But you can make the games easier or more difficult through character generation. I always generate a self sufficient party: Paladin, Fighter/Thief, Cleric, Mage. That party can handle any situation and is not dependent on any NPCs, which means that I can recruit the ones that I like and don't have to recruit out of necessity.

@stryx - Thanks for the information and the video link; very informative. Funny when the thiefling leaves the party; I had a good laugh at that. I think I am going to go with Paladin, Fighter/Thief, Cleric, Mage. I like the Paladin idea because it seems to give a better roleplaying experience than just a pure Fighter. I did think about a Ranger instead of the Paladin but to me the Ranger just seems like a pure Fighter class that is better at dual wielding. Don't get me wrong, the dual wielding would definitely dish out more damage but defeating the enemies are less of a concern to me than being able to experience all of the content within the games. I feel confident enough that I can defeat all the enemies I comes across so the Paladin has more appeal than the Ranger imo.

I should be starting my run next week sometime. Thank you again to everyone who took the time to read my post and offer up their opinions. I truly appreciate all of the information.

Who?

The spectral warrior in EotB 3.

In AD&D games you can never go wrong with a Fighter/Thief, Mage and Cleric in your party, possibly a Paladin or Ranger as a fourth. :)
Like people said, there are a few locks that can be picked in EotB2. I don't recall any use for a thief in EotB1 though.

That was not quite his name. But closer than Steve.

Test test, so I wrote a little guide, but I can't post it, it's probably too long, so let's see if I can post this post here.
EDIT:
Alright, so, i'll split the message
EDIT2:
doesn't work with splitting either, so just PM me a mailadress I can send it to.

You should have no posting restrictions. Try splitting the message further and watch out for unpaired tags. Better yet, install the Barefoot Essentials userscript -- it has a preview post feature and highlights unpaired tags.

After you've made the first post, you can immediately post a second one to have them merged. The resulting combined post can be then edited as a whole.

So this Guide is about character classes and party composition in the Eye of the Beholder games. While I'm not an expert in the games itself, I've grown up with the rules and understand them quite well. I've also played 1 far more than 2 and 3, which shouldn't affect my judgement, but keep in mind that there could always be some unforseen consequences.

First of all, there's some classes and races which are increadably weak in EOB in comparison to the other AD&D games, which are gnomes, because the prime advantage of gnomes is to play illusionist, which aren't in the game, there's not even a gnome mage. Next is the fighter as the advantage of the fighter is his specialisation on weapons, which makes him "better" than the Paladin or Ranger, however, this isn't implemented in EOB, so Rangers and Paladins are objectively better as they can do everything a Fighter can and still have their unique abilities. Last of is the Mage, for a more obscure reason. One major drawback is his low hitpoints, as there are some effects, usually traps that affect all party members and it also provides problems when flanked. Next is that his spells are not very good. His best spell would be invisibility as making the front row invisible should make a nice tank upgrade, right? Thing is, if the front row is invisible, the enemy just hit's the second row as he finds no targets in the first, it's kind of a glitch. Also the mage doesn't get bonus spells thanks to high intelligence as in other AD&D titles, so yeah, he's pretty useless.

Aside from all that there are a lot of weak choices for race/class combinations, but I will go over the good ones, instead of the bad ones. Keep in mind that you can always almost instantly shift the position of the teammates, I even went so far as to use a macro (shift+f1,shift+f3,shift+f2,shift+f4), which switches the first and second row. So usually the first row are tanks, the second are damagedealers, which I quickly switch out with the first row, then switch back, before the enemy hits. The third row are supporters and/or ranged attackers.


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Class choices
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Human Paladin
+ Highest levelcap
+ Passive defence buffs for himself
+ Passive defence buff for the entire party
+ Fighterlike high hitpoints, defence and attack
+ Minor heal ability
- no racial advantage until very late in the games
- doesn't tolerate evil characters and bahavior, such as looting graves in EOB2.

So the Paladin is a pretty solid choice, in fact arguably the best one for the front row. His passives are better than most racial advantages, so the human drawback is negated. He's a like a fighter, just better. I highly recommend a Paladin.


Human Cleric
+ Highest levelcap, which is important for hitchance
+ Good defence
+ Useful, but not essecial early turn undead
+ Acceptable hitchance
- Only good in front row
- Very restrictive weapon selection
- no racial advantage unitl very late in the games
- lacks 1 slot.

Having a cleric in the party is pretty much mandatory, now he doesn't need to be a pure cleric, but having no cleric screws you over big time. This human version retains an acceptable hitchance as the thac0 is lowered by 2 at level 19, while other races can only reach level 18. However aside from that, there are no relevant passives he benefits from. Also in the back row he can only throw rocks, which is weak, so he needs to be in front row, where he needs his symbol to cast spells, a weapon and a shield, but he has only two slots, so you usually stash the holy symbol away and let him only cast spells in between battles. However all in all, a human cleric is pretty solid, turn undead and flame blade are useful early on, until you find the mace +3.


Elf Ranger
+ Highest hitchance
+ Best damagedealer in the game
+ Good makeshift fighter
+ Capabale in every position
- lower hitpoints than non-elves
- can't be ressurected by "raise dead"
- picking the shortsword+3 in EOB is essential.

Alright, so the elf Rangers primary advantage is to have a weapon in each hand - that is usually a shortsword in the offhand. While others can do this as well, the Ranger suffers no penalty as long as he wears leather armor and on top of that as long as both weapons are swords, he benefits from his elven passive inreased hitchance which is honestly quite huge. You can also clad him in armor and put let him tank or give him a bow and put im in the backrow, but he truely shines with a weapon in each hand. Now shortswords for his offhand are a rare commodity. The basic version is only availible as a starting weapon and there's only one magical shortsword in EOB1, however picking that means you forego a good ring for mages and a good defensive item as you have to choose between the three.
If you are just playing EOB1, always pick an elven ranger instead of any mage. If you're going for all three games, that choice becomes more debatable with every iteration, especially in EOB3 when polearms are able to attack from second row.


Elf Fighter/Mage
+ Acceptable hitchance
+ Acceptable hitpoints
+ Acceptable makeshift character in any row
+ Decent archer
+ Can cast spells
- Armor conflicts with spellcasting

This elven fighter/mage is a suprisingly good choice for almost any party composition. While I consider a pure mage and a pure fighter to be pretty useless, this combination is actually good. It doesn't suffer from the mage's low hitpoints and hitchance, while beeing able to use spells and mageitems. Now spells aren't essential to EOB1, but you might want to start with this one. The reason is the scrolls, now you can take all scrolls with you and let them be learned by the npc mage in EOB2, however, you either won't transfer him to 3, thus the spells are lost or you transfer him and forego a character whichs stat you might have maxed out during character creation.


Half-Elf Ranger/Cleric
+ Good hitchance
+ Improved weapon selecetion over regular cleric
+ Excellent damage dealer due to flame blade spell
- Still a compromise between Ranger and Cleric
- lacks 2 slots

Now while I would say that a Fighter/Mage is better than a fighter and a mage, with the Ranger Cleric the compromise is more noticeable. The gain over the cleric in hitchance and hitpoints isn't huge. However the combination of the skills of cleric and ranger make him a powerhouse. You can equip a holy symbol in the primary hand, then cast flame blade to make it appear in the offhand, then you equip any weapon in the primary hand and you have a character that deals a lot of damage, since flameblade is very powerfull and availible early on. The downside is however, that once the flameblade expires, you need to repeat the process and keep a shortsword availible in case you run out of spells. So only pick this class if you have one character that has a surplus slot, so you can do quickly switch the holy symbol with a weapon, without accessing the inventory. However, since you use flameblades as offhand weapons you can and should skip on the shortsword +3 in EOB1 and go for the defence bracers or the ring of wizardry. Offsetting the downsides of the Ranger and the Cleric, this one is a pretty good choice.


Halfling Thief
+ Can pick locks.
+ Capable of solid attacks in comparison with other races' thieves.
+ Surplus slot.
- Lacking in attack, defence and spells.
- Kind of redundant, due to good NPC in EOB1


Sigh, okay the thief is for the most part purely decorative. In EOB1 there's only a handful of locks to pick and even lockpicks are rare. However, having a thief in the party get's more important in the later games and becomes mandatory in EOB3. In EOB1 you'll find an NPC, Tod Uphill, who has increadibly good stats for a thief. So you might as well transfer him to the later games, making a custom made and statmaxed thief a poor choice for EOB1. However you can still do this, if you are certain you want to transfer him to later games and the additional lockpick is a nice bonus in case Tod's one breaks. Thief's should have a sneak attack damage bonus, but I'm pretty sure that's not implemented in EOB1 - or at least not in a reliable fashion. So yeah at some point you need to weaken your party with a thief, the question is just how you approach that problem and a halfling thief is a solid solution.


Gnome Cleric/Thief
+ Niche choice
+ Only way to create a cleric/thief
+ Cleric and Thief have complement each other well.
+ Can pick locks
- Lacks 1 point of wisdom (and dexterity)
- has harsh level restrictions

First things first, there's a lot not to like about this combination. Gnomes make weak clerics, due to their low wisdom and can only reach level 12. The thief part foregoes the +1 dex of other races, thus making it effectively reduced as well, but not as harsh as the cleric counterpart. Gnome thiefs max at level 16, which is acceptable since it's multiclassed anyway. However the main advantage is that the cleric benefits the thief with an wider variety of armor he can use and the thieftpart makes more weapons availible. Hitchance and hitpoints aren't great though. All in all certainly the best way to play a gnome in EOB, but not very powerful in itself. However, this might still be a good pick in certain party compositions. Since the two mandatory classes are combined into one whithout sacrificing too much there's room for one more specialist in the party, which can make up for the cleric/thief's weakness. Actually, if you would just want to play EOB1, this is a pick I can recommend.


Dwarf Fighter/Thief
+ Niche choice
+ Nice passive racial buffs
+ Can pick locks
- Decresed defence due to lower dexterity.

So again, this is a bit of a tricky one. A thief and a fighter/mage is certainly a better choice than a mage and a fighter/thief, but still one might prefer a fighter/thief over a pure thief as lockpicking is rarely used. The lowered dexterity isn't great, but the levelcaps are highest. All in all, you can use this one, but again it's not great, but a viable thief pick.

I beg to differ.

First of all, there is no such thing as bonus spells for mages because of high int in 2nd edition of AD&D. Clerics get bonus spells for high wis, but mages do not get bonus spells for higher int. The rules don't allow for that. The higher a mage's int, the more likely he is to succeed when trying scribe a spell (with an int of 10 you only have a chance of 40% to scribe a spell into your spell book) and it gives him acces to higher level spells (with an int of 10 you can only learn spells up to the 5th level) and he can scribe more spells of a certain level into his spellbook ((with an int of 10 you can only scribe 7 spells per spell level).

I also would not bother to switch first (tank) and second row (damage dealer). That just gets hectic in real time combat and since your spell books get closed, when you move party members around, it makes efficient spell casting almost impossible.

My first row has to be able to take a beating and deliver one as well. I give both characters (human paladin and dwarven fighter/thief) the best protective gear and let then both attack with two weapons. The faster I can kill an enemy, the less damage is my front row going to take. My mage supplements the battle with his offensive spells, so that I rarely have to retreat and most of the time the monsters are dead before my frontline characters become unconscious. Of course every now and then I do the EOB dance and sidestep attacks, too.

So I would definitely recommend recruiting a single class mage with a high int for your party, so that you can have access to those nice offensive spells, that shorten battles so effectively, as fast as possible.