I'm puttering along with a party of 6 inside the Horde Fortress and thought I knew what I was doing, so I also started a party of 4, thinking that they will level up faster. But when they get to outside the Horde Fortress the warg riders swarm them and they go down every time. Even when I block the top bridge with web and grease and put my fighters there, the riders materialise behind them.

I have a dwarven cleric (Tempus 6), human fighter / rogue (3/3), human druid (6) and halfling wizard (6). The cleric and fighter / rogue are strength-based, while the druid and wizard focus on wisdom and intelligence respectively. All are Level 6, about 18200 XP.

Any hints? The game is supposed to be balanced for a party of between 4 and 6, so it has to be possible..

A party of 4 is hard, considerably harder than a party of 6 since you don't even level faster because of the dynamic XP calculation.

Hint: Set the difficulty slider to the easiest level, this way you'll face less monsters which also do less damage.

Cool, thanks!

A party of 4 won't level up significantly faster, but if you use a party of 5 and keep one of the characters at level 1 permanently, that party will because XP gains are based on average party level. (I consider this to be a design flaw in the game (and the pencil and paper game it's based off), not a feature or programming mistake.)

Will keep in mind, thanks

You could add 1-2 characters now for an easier game on the long run, 25k XP difference will only be 1-2 levels in the end, that's less than the 2 level drow ECL penalty and your "old" party members won't level more slowly because of the lowered average party level.

You could take a bard (their songs help a lot in combat) and a barbarian for example.

I haven't actually played this game, but my understanding is no: the game will only could the living character. Even if both characters were alive, the game would still average the level which would still lead to an average level higher than one.

Also, outside the fortress is one of the really tough parts in the game.
I've played a few times and it's always a pain.

Also. Break the drums or the drummers or the fight never ends.

My party has suffered losses, and had to regroup so it is now part of a six-person party that is now intent on destroying the Horde Fortress :)

@Jarmo: I've always tried to destroy the drums asap, so never noticed this connection. Thanks!