Balancing a melee-heavy party

[feainnewedds]

My usual party is very melee-heavy so things can get a bit crowded when fighting indoors. I want to even things out a bit, as at most I have two backline characters but usually only one. It also seems like I have quite a bit of overlap in roles. Party composition/their equipment (currently) is like this:

• Eder as Swashbuckler tank/defender -- sword/sabre and shield
• Xoti as Contemplative support/striker -- default hatchet and lantern
• Pallegina as Herald tank/striker -- greatsword, esp. WotEP
• Tekehu as Theurge ranged support/striker -- Watershaper's Rod
• Maia as Scout ranged striker -- Red Hand
• Aloth as SC Wizard ranged striker -- default scepter and small shield
• Serafen as SC Barbarian ranged striker -- dual blunderbusses
• MC as Mindstalker (Soulblade/Trickster) striker -- dual wield melee

My party mainstays are Eder and Xoti (though sometimes I swap her for Tekehu). When I'm doing non-faction stuff, I usually take Pallegina/Maia/Aloth, depending on my needs. Respective faction companions come along when I'm doing related quests. I haven't gotten to the DLCs yet so haven't taken the sidekicks for a whirl, but there is the fact that my MC is the same class as Ydwin which is less than ideal.

As I've gotten a little further into the game, I've seen that there's a heap of cool weapons available. I haven't really done a bunch with ranged weapons and I'd like to try them out, but then again there's so many neat melee weapons as well! I'm feeling a little stuck in the mud with my companions' and MC's weapon loadouts. So, I'm thinking of maybe trying out a ranged MC but I'm not sure what to look at in terms of classes. Maybe also changing up some companion builds as well, but their roles are more predefined and thus harder to move around.

Does anyone have some suggestions as to balancing my party? Maybe a ranged DPS class combo or something that can switch between ranged and melee when needed? 

[Elric Galad]

If you prefer melee, just go melee.

 

If you have troubles in crowded area, the easiest way to do is probably to get some mobility abilities for a couple of your melee characters (escape, charge, leap, flagellant path and evasive roll). This won't allow to abuse choke points, but at least your melee won't be blocked.

 

And if you really want to abuse a particular choke point, nothing prevent switching to ranged weapon from time to time. Even melee heavy builds are often decent with ranged weapons (bar maybe Devoted).

Edited February 24, 2022 by Elric Galad

[Kaylon]

Full melee is perfectly viable - front Eder (fighter/rogue) + Pallegina (paladin chanter), behind them Aloth (fighter/wizard) with Citzal Spirit Lance and PC with WotEP (soulblade/trickster, fighter/barbarian, etc.), back Xoti (monk) with Instruments of Pain (until she gets WotW). You can also replace Pallegina with the PC and use instead Serafen (cipher/barb) behind.

[thelee]

just explicitly calling it out (don't know where OP's level of familiarity with the game is) that having staffs and pikes can help with crowding due to their inherent reach (one of the several advantages of aforementioned Citzal Spirit Lance), and still give you the gameplay satisfaction of staying in melee. It might help one or so extra characters operate in chokepoint/crowded situations. aforementioned instruments of pain is a similarly very helpful effect with much larger reach, but comes late compared to just picking up a staff or pike (but can work with any melee weapon).

 

2 hours ago, Elric Galad said:

If you have troubles in crowded area, the easiest way to do is probably to get some mobility abilities for a couple of your melee characters (escape, charge, leap, flagellant path and evasive roll). This won't allow to abuse choke points, but at least your melee won't be blocked.

if you don't want to MC or SC one of these classes in particular, Bounding Boots are a really handy and underrated item. Two free uses of Leap per rest. Sometimes that's all you really need.

[Constentin Lévine]

If you are going to fully melee your party, then a Trickster can be very useful : as SC or MC, he can reduce (quasi) passively by 20 the deflection of ennemies with Repulsive Visage and Persistent Distraction, and as melee party, it is the defense you will target the more often. With some weapons or Confunding Blow on top, it is even more.

Edited February 24, 2022 by Constentin Lévine