There's also the tactic of choosing mental resistant races to try to obviate the need for soul shield. Also, no need for power cast on every caster in every power. It is needed for end game magical damage, but casters can do other things at that time. But, I get it, it does improve a lot of those other things too, so, unless one wants their casters to join in on the end game melee fest, which is viable, power cast is very very nice to have. Of course, the max init caster easily becomes a slinger. Pump strength and dexterity next.

True, things often depend on the system, a big reason I love the genre. If spells have a cost, or a limit of learning, then one has to pick and chose. The fun of such systems varies radically. I know I managed a lot of spells and charges in LoLS on each character. I'm thinking how I want to tackle Proving Grounds when I give another go from time to time.

Some systems don't exactly allow for different builds, sadly. That would alleviate some of the issues, of course. Having tried various bishops in Wiz8, I have to say, I rather like an early focus on wizardry and psionics. But, I do like my nuker bishops.

Well, specialization is usually optimal for a reason. I do enjoy a generalist though. Hard party based RPGs tend to make generalists liabilities, however. I like the dragon rogue build in NWN for the skills, but 3e really makes only certain classes capable of being skillful, so, kind to have to be a rogue to have a wide skill set in NWN. Well, a wizard can "cheat" a bit. But heavy armor with AC bonuses, absurd strength and can even "cheat" being a caster, it's the best a little of everything build for me. Very nice in a game whre one only creates and controls a single character. I wish more rogues were like that rather than single target damage spikers. Of course, both are less "wasted space" than the classical thief. (Of course, that one's both. 12d6 sneak attack and improved knockdown is ocasionally egreagious, even without a greatsword.)

Oh, I enjoy the idea of having a B party. Shame so many Wizlikes work just as well not creating further characters. The aforementioned DQ3 actually does a great job of that. The merchant is great early on in the NES version. I've never been one for building for end game, despite liking monks. But, I generally like a mix of early strong characters that plateau and characters that either never stop growing, or taper off closer to the natural end point of a game. Fun that some games reverse the power of casters, very strong early on, only good for crowd control, if that, late game. Hmm, some games that's fighters, only good for locking down a nasty oponent late game, allowing the strong casters to wipe out the moops unasailed. I wish more martials had crowd control.

Well. I haven't touched Wiz8 in a while. Too busy pl;aying Dragon "Warrior" III and Final Fantasy I on NES. Trying out the casters in both. I need to get back into these cRPGs I was playing, like Wiz8, Swordflight, and Grimrock II. But I also would love to actually finish a playthrough of the Famicom version of FFII. And, sometime, play the trifecta of terror :P Rather, the zennith of mapping blobbers: Werdna, Chaos, and Uukrul.

Sometimes, it's nice not to have to worry about builds. I can enjoy Dragon Quest 1, 2, and 4, for example, and those games don't give you build options (although DQ4 lets you choose which characters to use and which to leave in the wagon).

Or Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. That's a nice game if you don't want to have to worry about builds, as well.

Some things to know about that game that might not be immediately obvious:
* Heavy armor is a trap. Wearing it will result in misery late game, as enemies wipe your party out before you get to act. (By contrast, with light armor and shields, it's feasible to win before the enemies get a chance to act.) (Incidentally, I consider this to be the game's biggest balance issue.)
* Heavy armor makes spells you cast less likely to work. The same is true of weapons, though staves (not maces), daggers, and the Masamune are execptions. The game doesn't even hint at this mechanic, and it really should, as it's definitely strategically significant, and the game gets much more interesting when you realize this.
* You don't need 9999 HP and weapon/spell level 16, so don't beat yourself up over this. In fact, I consider 8 to be the expected level for endgame, at least for weapons/spells you use a lot, and high HP can actually be detrimental.
* If you use magic regularly and don't wear equipment that interferes with magic, status spells become really good around mid-game. This is especially true for instant death spells like Mini and Toad.

SaGa Frontier 2 does this, but takes it one step further: Assuming you're not using steel on the character, magic is something you can afford to use constantly (as though it were your regular attacks), but physical attacks need to be conserved.

Bard's Tale 3's Rogue. Might only be good for single target damage, but:
* Can hide in shadows to reach a far away enemy, even when there are enemies close up preventing your party from advancing.
* Can't be attacked while hidden, not even by party-wide spells.
* The backstab from hiding is an instant kill that works on basically everything, including the final boss. (This is intentional; in fact, this is how you're meant to defeat the final boss. Remember, the game's subtitle is "Thief of Fate" for a reason.)

It can be fun to be really powerful. For example, my level 36 Human Fighter has Strength, Dexterity, Speed, and Senses maxed, resulting in the "optimal" build. My level 36 Human Rogue has the same. If I get them both *Light Swords*, enemies in front of the party won't stand a chance, especially android enemies. Both of them are also proficient with bows and crossbows (thankfully, same skill, so you can switch back and forth between them).

My Valkyrie is very tanky, having maxed the same (though not as tanky as the Fighter, in terms of hit points, she has enough). She is great at Polearms, can cheat death, is decent at ranged combat, and has Divinity magic (which can be great even without Powercast). IMO, she outclasses the Lord, who is supposed to be great at dual wielding, but I find that class obsoleted by a Fighter or Rogue dual wielding for much more damage. Why not get the best of both worlds, and have a Fighter and Rogue up front doing heavy damage, and the Valkyrie can support them with Divinity magic?

My Ranger is about as optimized as you can get, having the same maxed as the other 3. He is using Polearms just like the Valkyrie, so they can cover both flanks with extended range. He excels at range, having a Ranged Combat skill bonus and ranged crits. He is an Alchemy caster, which can be good, even without PC (note that, IMO, that spellbook is the most balanced between defense and offense).

My Bishops maxed Strength, Intelligence, Speed, and Senses, giving them Powerstrike, Powercast, Snakespeed, and Eagle Eye. This is controversial, but I like to have classes that are versatile, able to handle any threat. My Bishops will get Staves of Doom, able to hit in melee, almost always safely, from extended range. They will get Wrist Rockets and good stones, making even my casters deadly in ranged combat. They have the majority of spells, have picked all of the good level 6 and 7 spells that can't be bought by vendors, and will buy all of the lower level spells.

Problems I have with Fighters:
* Berserk is too powerful and too boring. Game already seems to favor melee a little too much, and Berserk just amplifies the issue.
* Magic capability is rather lacking.

I've beaten 2 of them and have the 3rd one on my GOG account.

Incidentally, I'd like to see some other games like Wizardry 4, but maybe not as difficult. I actually like using monsters as party members; it can be quite fun. (I'm doing that in my Bard's Tale 2 playthrough.)\

Unfortunately, it doesn't go as far as I'd like, as you still have one character you can't remove until the post-game, and you can never create extra characters of that character's class.

There's other games that come just as close, like Stranger of Sword City, where you can swap in and out created characters, except that there's one character you can't ever swap out.

(Stranger of Sword City gives the Samurai class access to crowd control; in fact, they get their first multi-target skill befoer any casters do.)

Also, for liking the mix of characters good early and those who keep growing, I find SaGa 2 (Final Fantasy Legend 2) to be an interesting case:
* Humans gain stats slowly through fighting; they're probably the best race long-term, but it takes a long time to get there.
* Espers (Mutants) are similar to humans, except that they grow even more slowly, but get extra skills that are helpful early on. When your humans can't afford even basic group-hitting spells, each esper starts with a skill that hits all enemies and can be restored almost for free at the inn. The catch is that esper skills aren't as good as comparable items.
* Robots, instead of getting slow stat gain through use, get all their stats from equipment. Just give a robot a few lightsabers and suddenly you have a fast and powerful physical attacker. They're not ideal long-term, especially with the inability to use magic (or, in the DS version, the separation between items that let you use spells and items that give you the magic power needed to make those spells work), but get good really quickly.
* Monsters only use skills, no items, but have decent balanced stats. They transform on eating meat, and if you know what meat to eat, your monsters can become decently powerful rather quickly. (Speedrun routes for this game, at least in the glitchless and 4-monster categories, involve a lot of meat routing.)

I consider it a balance between melee, ranged, and magic.

Melee requires you to (usually) be in short range, though sometimes extended ranged weapons come into play (note my Valkyrie and Ranger, on the flanks, with Polearms, and my Bishops, in the center, with Quarterstaves). It usually does way more damage, however. This is how you deal with bosses.

Ranged combat requires that you have ammo, with the bonus that you can hit from thrown or long range. Don't use this among friendlies, or risk friendly fire. Instead, use magic. This is how you deal with gazers on AP with Eye For An Eye.

Magic allows for a lot of flexibility, including AOE. This can get you through a lot of encounters before AP, obsoleting the need to carry around ammo for ranged combat. However, this falls off on AP.

So, rock, papers, scissors.