I am just curious what party you like to use when playing Ultima 3, and what sort of race/class/starting stat combinations you prefer.

For me, my preferred endgame party is Ranger, Lark, Wizard, Druid, all Fuzzies. (I prefer not missing (99 DEX) to doing more damage when I do hit, and 99 INT allows Mentar to hit at full power (198 damage).) Some other classes (Thief, Paladin, Cleric) are good early to mid-game, but I find them lacking in the endgame, so I like to replace them eventually if I use them.

What do you prefer?

(Also, I would still like an answer to the question I posed in the other topic I made recently.)

I usually run Bobbit or Human Paladin, Elf Thief, Fuzzy Wizard and Bobbit Cleric, myself, but there are likely better parties. That's just my favourite.

With two healers, I can indefinitely support a poisoned or starving party, which is a problem that's come up more than once. The Thief is how I make money in the early game, until I can get in behind the armour stone in the Death Gulch, which requires keys and a boat.

In terms of healers, I actually like using a Druid; if INT is at least 18 and WIS is at least 20, it's like having two healers in one character. This tends to work well before I am ready to use dungeon fountains for healing (which are the only realistic way to heal 2000+ HP later in the game).

Personally, I don't like running Humans, Dwarves, or Bobbits because they can't reach 99 DEX, and with anything less, misses become annoying. That's actually the main problem I have with Paladins; they can't reach 99 in both DEX and WIS, making them not so great in the long run. In fact, I have been known to make Fuzzy Paladins (though I should point out that, endgame, Wizard spells are more important than Cleric spells).

I actually don't use Death Gulch for money; I have found that looting Perinian works well. Just put your thief-type (I happen to like Rangers because they are good for so many other purposes, but a Thief will work very well for this purpose), use a ladder up/down spell to reach level 3, loot the areas near the corners, and then go down the southeast corner to reach an area with more treasures. I find this to be pretty fast, and it doesn't require keys or a boat; only torches (which are much cheaper) and magic (which can eventually replace torches).

One other thing I have noticed is that, in Ultima 3, and unlike many other games (certainly unlike Might and Magic 3-5), it is actually a reasonable strategy to switch party members mid-game. If you can get a lot of money, it is easy to raise a new character's stats. XP isn't hard to get if you have a Wizard with 70 INT; just cast spell O (Necorp, which reduces every enemy to 1 HP), and your new character can easily finish off the enemies in one hit; the guard near the entrance of Death Gulch is a good choice. (If the new character is your first Wizard, get 75 INT and spell P will help that character get experience.)

Also, I note that, in the final dungeon, the only difference between classes that matters is the ability to cast spells; hence, at that point, Thieves are tied with Fighters and Barbarians for being the worst class. Fortunately, as I mentioned above, it is easy to train a replacement once you reach the point where that matters.

Edit: Corrected Druid stats.

2 Bobbit Paladins, 2 Fuzzy Wizards. Paladins get all the Cleric spells I need, and Wizards bring overwhelming firepower. I can unlock chests and stuff with Appar Unem.

I actually don't think Bobbit is ideal for a Paladin. The problem is that you are capped at 50 Dexterity, which means you will only hit 75% of the time, and that 25% miss chance can be annoying. (At 99 Dexterity, your attacks almost always hit; I believe the miss chance is 1 in 200.) I would actually recommend Elf or Fuzzy for your Paladins. As a Fuzzy, you miss out on the spell to warp to the surface (but you can just use spell E (of either type) to keep going up floors) and the long light spell (but you can just have your Wizards create light or use torches); the low Strength doesn't hurt much if you have a good weapon. As an Elf, you would further miss out on the cure poison spell, but a Wizard with 80 Intelligence can cast that spell anyway. (In fact, Fuzzy Wizards can eventually cast every spell that isn't Cleric only, and can cast the stronger heal spell in addition to that.)

The problem with using Appar Unem for chests is that it is slow. In particular, to open a chest with the spell:
* 3 or 4 keystrokes are required to cast the spell (C # [C for Ranger/Druid] B). By contrast, "Get chest" is just 2 keystrokes (G #).
* Appar Unem can fail, in which case the chest is not opened you must repeat the keystrokes again. "Get chest" can't fail in this manner; you always get the chest's contents. Of course, you might trigger a trap, but if your level is decent, you can tank the damage and just use the fountains on the second level of Perinian to heal it all in an instant (especially nice if you are getting your chests from Perinian itself).
* Appar Unem needs 5 MP. Once you run out of MP, you will need to pass time for your MP to recover so you can cast it again.

In conclusion, Appar Unem may be useful early on when chest traps could be catastrophic, but later on, it is much faster to just use the "Get chest" command. This is true even without any thief-types in the party, though having one makes it easier to do this at a lower level.