Hello after browsing forums I discoved my tactics is diferent from forum recomandations. After beating game with fighter,archer,mage,priest party on torment(when Jeff learns make torment not cakewalk) I wanted make some decisions so I write here what I think is ultimate party.
Character creation:
powafitha
slith divinely touched elite warrior soldier
soldier is most sp effective class for fighter.
munchatanka
nephil divinely touched natural mage custom
dex 6
int 5
mage 5
defense 2
luck 2
godnear
nephil divinely touched pure spirit custom
int 8
priest 7
luck 2
iownyou
nephil divinely touched natural mage custom
int 7
mage 7
luck 2
And party works following
powafitha is primary tank skills roughtly in this order
qa 6 (lot more damage)
str 6 (carring capacity)
luck 2
pole 8
defense 6
dex 6
parry raise that eremy hits do 1 damage to you. (10 suffices to endgame)
meele 6
then raise cheapest from blademaster/pole/str to increase damage
dex 8 and raise gymnastic to be avoid archers.(in first game I didnt do that)
train quick strike after first +ap item
munchatanka
def 6
parry
then use godnear scheme with priest substuted to mage
godnear
train priest spells and int (12 is more than enough) until cecil
after buying cheapest from magery/spellcraft/priest
iownyou
use godnear scheme with priest substuted to mage
give him all knowledge brews
dont give more than 4 to tool use. Until unlock chest contains only crap(which you can collect latter anyway)
after unlock opens almost anything(except that 90 chest in castle)
Traps are not issue(except alarm traps in castle and cotra)
Only problem is you cannot deactivate golems which are wimpy anyway.
give 1 qa to iownyou and godnear to be faster than munchatanka. His aoe spells lure eremies.
FA- better is give 2 at start but you can buy it later.
NL- Is better buy it. It allows you skip combat with animals. (which in begining is easy xp) Caches can be skipped until then they dont have anything interesting.
AL- buy first interesting book is at for duvno where you will have enough money(just watch 30000 gold limit)
And skills I didnt use
1. endurance is worthless. Dont invest single point. begining doesnt matter because you will ice rain everything. Later with augumentation and enduring shield you have 150hp.
3. first two characters are tanks first is target for missiles second only meelers. You should forgot about def. abilities of last two chars.
str you want equip last characters with magi bonus eq so you dont need str. And you end with str 0 anyway.
Equipment
you dont need high armor. So give characters what boosts attack most. Try get mercuric foo as fast as possible. First give mercuric leather and cryos spear to iownyou.