My inner Wiz 8 autist felt a need to comments on some of those:
-You want 1-3 durable frontliners with Short range weapons. Obvious choices are Fighter/Lord/Samurai, though Ninjas, Monks, and even Rogues are effective though they take longer to bring up to par. Bards can also work on the frontline if you know where to grind all the right equipment for them but I don't really recommend that
Yeah, 3 melees on the front are the most optimal option - from powergaming POV the best would be fighter/fighter/rogue
I usually roll with fighter/rogue/bard, sometimes swapping rogue for non-casting build of samurai, just to add some flavor.
-Fairie ninjas can use the best (short range) weapon in the game but require massive amounts of babysitting before that.
Never understood that tbh - you carry on one wimpy, first-to-die char for almost 1/3 or 1/2 of the game, just to get the most OPd weapon ever which trivializes the rest of the game.
-Put 1 character on each flank with extended weapons. Valkyrie is the obvious choice with spears, but fighters and lords can use most of the same weapons, and monks work with staves. Unconventional choice: Mook Fighters can use the Blade of Giants much later in the game.
With specific party formation you don't need reach weapons to hit front line mobs by all your melees. Having Valk in the team is highly advisable though - lots of great gear, can act as a support caster + the best class ability.
-1 Healer, 1 Support caster, 1 status-inflicter. These can overlap. Note that with effort hybrid casters can be as effective as specialists. Samurai can learn the entire mage spellbook and cast spells with the same power, Lords can be effective priests, monks can be psions, etc. It just takes longer. You can double up these roles with others if you know what you are doing.
Developing hybrids to be both good at melee and casting is not worth it - just takes too much grind, like spamming light spell etc.
Whenever I roll with hybrids (rarely, usually Samurai), I never develop their casting skills. The only exception is Valk, which doesn't not have much important skills (polearms/close combat), so you can invest in the casting-related ones.
Dedicated casters can be a bit underwhelming in Wiz 8 (they die often) while melee tends to dominate.
I don't get that feeling - they both compliment each other. Keeping casters in the back make them safe, if you don't get surrounded, and later on, they are protected from AoE spells by having constant magic screen on plus casting soul shield and element shield in the first round, which all provides ridiculous amount of spell res.
-Direct damage spells are crap, do not build a party expecting to win by nuking things. Status effect spells are much more useful.
Yeah, it was mentioned before that CC is the king, but I wouldn't underestimate early DD spells like magic missiles or fireball - they make early-mid game much more easier.
-Classic mage/priest combo works fine. Psionic or alchemist can sub for the mage but you'll lose access to some helpful buffs.
Priest is the arguably the weakest class in the game - it's 100x times better to have Valk or Priest 1/Lord X and build up their casting skills.
All you need from Priest is Armorplate and Magic Screen - the first can be learned pretty quickly by Valk/Lord, and the latter should be covered by your obligatory Bard.
A risky strategy is to use a Bard for support, they also have some pretty decent status effects they can spam, but they are less versatile. Gadgeteer is more of a damager/debuffer but they are inferior to a bard in all ways (omnigun is overrated AF, gadgets are worse than instruments, shut up, fuck you, I will fight you IRL over this.)
Bard is one of the top class imo, and the instruments provide you most crucial spells you will need (freeze flesh/insanity/heal all/armormelt/haste/etc). Plus, comparing to gadgeteer, the pace of acquiring the instruments is much more steady, while the gadgeteer blooms only late game.
-Despite what the manual tells you a Bishop that learns all schools of magic works great. Since the amount of MP you get is based on the number of spells you know and bishops learn 4x the number of spells, they easily get 4x the amount of mana (well not quite, but they do get a lot)
I though so before, since I always rolled with 2 Bishops with complimentary schools, but it seems that the extra spells you learn gives you only tiny amounts of extra MPs. The main gain comes from level ups.
Still, two Bishops with complimentary schools is the way to roll.
-Ranger is a comfy class since they will spot hidden items for you but ranged damage struggles to compete. Can work as a more durable alchemist.
Hidden items are shit, and it's not worth investing in alchemy, if you have all the crucial spells covered by your casters/bard/gadgeteer
-There are exactly 3 RPCs in the game that don't suck: a Valkyrie, Bard, and a Monk. Plan accordingly.
True, though AFAIK, Saxx doesn't want to go to many locations, so you usually end up with Vi and the android anyway.
For stats at level up, focus every weapon-based character on Str and Dex first, then switch to Spd and Vit when maxed. You won't max more than 2-3 stats per character. Str doubles their damage and Dex gives more attacks and adds to AC. Spd also adds attacks but is less effective than Dex, and Vit is useful for everyone. Mages should do Piety and Int, then Vit and spd.
Agree on the most, though I never invested in Piety for my casters - just INT/SPD/VIT
Also - agree with Zboj on everything he writes here on Rogues.