Rate my party please

[szenhidrat]

Party:
Bard half-elf 12 18 16 17 10 18 (bow, large swords)
Paladin human 18/78 18 18 7 18 18 (great sword, large sword)
multi Fighter/Druid half-elf 18/73 15 18 4 18 15 (large sword, quarter staff)
multi Fighter/Thief halfling 17 19 18 10 10 9 (bow, large sword)
Cleric human 18 18 16 10 18 3 (flail, mace)
Mage elf 10 19 16 18 10 8 (missile weapons)

PLease say your opinion. Oh and i have a few questions too.

Should i dual or multi class the mage or the cleric?
Is it worth specializin' the mage? I read illusionist is good but i don't want to miss Deathspell it was very cool in BG2.
I saw a lot of party with a cleric/ranger. What is the main advantage of this multi? Should i change my cleric to it?
Is it worth takein' a druid along? Dunno what's it spell selection like i thought to take along all of the classes just in case.
What about the weapon spec.?

Thanks

[Pellinore]

You will find varied playing styles here and you will get varied responses here but I think the party is sound. Notes:

Bard will level up fast in the beginning of Easthaven if you are thorough.

Fighter/Thief does not need any pick pocket skills with you being a Bard.

Elf Mage can only be an Enchanter if you specialise which means certain spells will be forbidden to the mage. Not horribly bad since you have extra arcane power with the Bard. I would not multi class.

I would keep a pure cleric to make him an undead turning fool.... I like pure class casters...

Maybe make your Fighter/Druid a Cleric/Ranger. You will have access to both cleric and druid spells.

[kmonster]

Your party can do well, if you like pure classes more there's no need for dualclassing your mage or cleric or other changes.
One big disadvantage is that 3 of your characters aren't even proficient in a ranged weapon type (I'd specialize the paladin in axes, the druid and cleric in missile weapons), but this can be fixed when you gain more proficiency points.

18 cha for the bard isn't necessary, 15 cha is eanough for all charisma based dialogue options and with the "friends" spell you can reach 20 for optimal shop prices. 18 int (less reloads because of scroll scribing failures) and 14 str (more carrying capacity) might be more comfortable.

The fighter/druid would be more powerful with 18 dex, 3 int and 16 wis.

A ranger/cleric multiclass could fight better, but he'd also an inferior caster and undead turner compared to a pure class cleric.

Druid spells are powerful in IWD, especially if you've HoW.

[szenhidrat]

Thanks for the replys. Only got one more question.

So what about the multi Fighter/Druid then?

If druids are truly powerful should i make him a pure druid? Or change him to a ranger/cleric?(but i red in the manual rangers only reach lvl6 druid spells)

[kmonster]

I'd keep him multiclassed. You've more physical fighting power than with a pure druid and a ranger/cleric doesn't get the druid spells you'll want.

[ultramarine]

Bard half-elf 12 18 16 17 10 18 (bow, large swords)
Paladin human 18/78 18 18 7 18 18 (great sword, large sword)
multi Fighter/Druid half-elf 18/73 15 18 4 18 15 (large sword, quarter staff)
multi Fighter/Thief halfling 17 19 18 10 10 9 (bow, large sword)
Cleric human 18 18 16 10 18 3 (flail, mace)
Mage elf 10 19 16 18 10 8 (missile weapons)

On weapon spec, your fighters classes should have a slashing, bashing and missile type. For example:
Paladin takes bow, flail and later on put long sword sword or you can start off with a cbow, Mace and later on a LS
Druids goes well with missile and LS
F/T takes a bow, LS and later a staff (they can back stab with a staff!)

For the fun of it, you might want to start of with a Ranger then dual to cleric at level 3. He will get 2 point in weapons and extra 1/2 APR. And tracking skills, and maybe some extra conversation. Plus if you did not patch iwd with HoW then he gets druid spells.