Ah, so you also like powergaming just in different way :P

Can someone fill me in? I've completed the game but I do not know why everyone says shock shield is important in the later stages. I don't remember any places where shock damage was that prominent.

Oh, I did not notice that. My quarrel with the thing was over very quickly, so I might have missed that part. Thanks for the answer.

That's a really solid party. A lot of people come up with really stupid ideas (Minotaur Mage on the front line, durrrr!) but what you've got there is top notch. I do have a couple of minor suggestions, though.

First, the Human Fighter is probably going to need more Strength. With 25 points in Armor, I'm assuming you plan on putting him in plate or the Valor Armor. That stuff is very heavy, and while you do get +2 Strength from the 35 points in Swords and there are a pair of gloves that give another +2 Strength, that's probably not going to be enough. I would switch Evasive out for Athletic (+2 Str). That still might not be enough, but a Fighter in Valor Armor is a tough nut to crack. If you plan on keeping him in Light Armor, then you should be fine with low Strength, but he's probably not going to be quite as durable.

I'd drop a point from the Lizardman Rogue's Dex in favor of Will. The -1 energy per level from having 9 Will is a noticeable drawback once you've gained a few levels and start triggering special attacks fairly often. The other thing I'd change is dropping Evasive for Agile. Evasive gives +7 Evasion and Agile gives +2 Dex. Two extra points of Dex gives you +4 Evasion, +6 or +7 Fire/Shock Resist and +2 Accuracy. Trading three points of Evasion for the extra accuracy and elemental resistances is totally worth it, and with 24 points in Dodge (I'm assuming you're going to wear the Lurker set for max evasion?) you're going to be nearly immune to physical attacks anyway. Some more accuracy and elemental resistances would be more beneficial.

The Minotaur Rogue is good, except I'd drop a point from Strength into Will. High level Missile attacks take energy for every shot, and 7 Will means -2 Energy per level while 8 Will means -1 Energy per level. 21 Strength gives the same damage bonus as 20 Strength anyway.

I'm not a big fan of dual-element Mages, but if you're going to make one, the way you've allocated your points between the elements and Spellcraft is the right way to do it. However, Strong Mind is not good. It gives you +2 Will, which means one extra energy per level and +5 at level one. You'll probably finish the game at level 13, so you're looking at +17 energy from Strong Mind. If you take Aura instead, you get +15 energy right off the bat. You'll end the game with about the same amount of energy, and you'll have a lot more energy throughout the game, especially toward the start. By the time Strong Mind gives you more energy than Aura, two more energy doesn't matter at all, but Aura at the start/middle makes a big difference. The only time I'd take Strong Mind is if I've already taken Aura and just wanted ridiculous amounts of energy for some reason (which I don't recommend).

In any case, if you rolled with what you've got you'd have no serious problems; people have beat the game with all sorts of stupid setups, and even though yours isn't absolutely perfect in my opinion, it's *really* close. Not that I ever saw. It just chased me around.

Please refrain from making comments like that, they make you look like a really inconsiderate and judgmental person. People have different ways of playing the game and it's a sign of your own insecurity when you deem someone stupid because they happen to have a different approach than you.

I'm down to level 4 now.
I am noticing a lack of carry power on my warrior.
Perhaps some extra strength would have been useful.
I'll see how it goes.

Strength actually doesn't make much difference in terms of damage. The difference between 10 Strength and 18 Strength is only four attack power. If you aren't hitting hard enough, more points into your weapon skill are what really matters.

What a coincidence, I am a judgmental person! I'm quite comfortable saying that anyone who thinks putting a Mage on the front line is a good idea is an idiot. And no, that's not a sign of insecurity. Spare me your Internet psychoanalysis nonsense. There are many different approaches, and some of them are stupid.

Feel free to disagree with me, but I will stand by what I said.

Well, it's rather a stupid thing to say, so go right ahead there. You're clearly a real winner.

People can have a different approach than I do without being stupid. If somebody wants to split the points on their Mage and go with two different elements, fine. I don't do that, but it's not a stupid decision, really. However, there are some ideas that really are just dumb (a front line Mage, or a serious non-novelty attempt at a late game party using nothing but spears, etc), and my saying that these stupid ideas are stupid doesn't mean I'm insecure.

Although I'd say that your saying so is another pretty stupid thing to say. Willingness to butt heads with people over the stupid crap they say is not a sign of insecurity. If you can't tell that some ideas are just stupid, well, maybe you're just stupid too.

By now I've come across about 5 or 6 of your posts across this board, and the ratio of those that didn't have the words stupid or dumb in them is pretty slim. Just saying.

*checks "My Posts"*

Less than half of my posts involve me calling something or someone stupid. Check your ratios again; maybe you're as good at math as you are at Internet psychoanalysis, eh Freud?

It's not the attack power I'm worried about, it the carry allowance.
But then I'm not sure I would be happy dropping Agility enough to make a real difference.
Once I know how much my preferred loadout will weigh, I might take a second look at this.

OK, I'm getting heartily fed up with having to leave food / bombs / whatever behind due to lack of carry weight. This makes me very nervous whether they'll actually be able to use the gear I want for them.

I have also heard that I may not want to get all the tomes of wisdom.

With this in mind, I've ammended the plan:

Minotaur Fighter (52 skill points and ?2 Tomes of Wisdom)
S19 D12 V14 W7
Skilled
Agile
16 Armour
36 (46) Swords
This wil be the heavy armour guy.
He will NOT get the first tome of wisdom.

Lizardman Rogue (54 skill points)
S10 D18 V14 W9
Skilled
Agile
17 Dodge
37 Daggers
Light armour guy

Insectoid Mage (54 skill points and a Tome of Wisdom and Tome of Fire)
S8 D11 V12 W20
Skilled
Aura
12 Spellcraft
50 Fire
The extra damage from high powered fire spells may outwiegh the lack of stun, we'll see.

Minotaur Rogue (52 skill points)
S21 D6 V18 W7
Skilled
Headhunter
50 MIssile
2 Dodge
I've heard that missile weapons do a lot more damage than thrown.
Is this accurate?
I'm thinking that the strength bonuses from the thrown tree may be more useful than the dex bonuses from missiles, especially as Dex is deliberately a dump stat for him.
Or will he suffer too much from AoE hits without the Dex?

Never roll with 7 Will. When you only gain one to three energy per level anyway, having a -2 adjustment on that means you're going to run out of energy for special attacks constantly. You're screwing your damage output. I'd be reluctant to go with eight will, either. Twelve Dex isn't going to do you any good; you won't dodge anything with that little evasion, the resistances are still crap, and the accuracy boost is irrelevant compared to the three skill points you lose for choosing minotaur over human.

One minotaur is a great idea because Headhunter is an awesome perk and a throwing or missile Rogue on the back row with Dex as a dump stat is a good addition to the party, plus they only need to put points into one skill so you're not missing out much. A second minotaur is not really all that great, due to the lack of skill points (seriously, Skilled is the best perk after Headhunter, and minotaurs have the reverse of it just for being minotaurs, so if you don't have Headhunter your minotaur is just bad, and you should only have one Headhunter). You're planning on skimping on Will for a melee fighter and taking advantage of the extra stats elsewhere, but running out of energy in combat drops your damage output considerably. You don't need more than ten, but you absolutely should not drop it lower than eight.

The lizardman Rogue should drop a point from Dex and put it into Will. Daggers burn energy faster than any other weapon due to their attack speed. One point of Dex doesn't matter much, and your Will is one point short of avoiding the energy penalty.

The Insectoid Mage looks pretty good as is. The 50 skill Fire Immunity is basically a waste; their fire resistance is going to be 65 just from previous skill-ups anyway, and if you're still worried about fire damage you can cast Fire Shield to add another +35 for the whole party, which takes your Mage to 100. I'd drop Fire Magic down to 44 and put the other six points into Spellcraft to get the second tier of faster casting.