So this is still my first play through ever.  I have used MOSTLY custom characters (except Eder and Durance) because when I look at the story characters there stats just dont look good (for instance Pallegina no idea what to do with her as she does not get faith and conviction bonuses which is what makes a paladin go from an ok tank to a stellar one and her Might/Dex is bad for DPS)..are these characters OK to get through the game on hard? I am at Act II and have had no deaths to the party yet (except aloth hit a trap that one shotted him so hes dead).  So I was using Aloth as well..half the party were story characters.

Even on Potd, if you use a whole party, story companions are alright, especially Aloth and Durance. Perfect stats are needed for a good tank in my opinion.

You can go through hard difficulty with the story characters blind folded, with one hand tied behind your back...if you know what you are doing.

 

I finished the game on hard with story companions my first time around and easily so too!

Ok cool is Act II too late to start using them all? 

You need at least two Hurt Mages, and Aloth is not that.

Hurt mages?

I still haven't finished the game. Played around up to and around in act 2 more or less 50+ times by now as I have a hard time deciding what I want to do. 

From the first time I picked up the game I have only played on PotD and the only difficulties I've encountered are the first few levels if you pick a bad fight or don't know how to deal with certain monsters\encounters (the first few times I think I fought a million shades, had no idea how they worked).

 

After lvl 5 it mostly seems faceroll with a full party (the story companions). I've never kept the ranger girl in my group for too long tho. Usually due to my partycomposition and the fact that she feels abit underwhelming due to her Wolf companion, tho her statdistribution seems more decent that most of the others

PotD can be quite challenging at times.

 

Hard on the other hand is easily doable for anyone who isn't a complete moron.

I'm playing on Hard currently with story companions...it's definitely manageable. But you need to disable the auto level companion option.

You need at least two Hurt Mages, and Aloth is not that.

Haha no.

 

Even potd is perfectly doable using vanilla Aloth and no other wizard/druid.

 

On hard you can get away with a ton of inefficiency and still finish the game no prob.

Appreciate the input guys.  In the past week I have switched to a all story companion crew and as you said on hard its very easy so far.  Obviously playing competently trumps all.