I didn't see anything in the player's guide about this. I'm thinking, for instance, about whether a pure rogue will be assumed to be on hand. This was the case with the Co8 ToEE mod. (It's one of the reasons you folks get grief on RPGCodex.)
I've heard something about a ranger/druid plot and a LE evil storyline. I don't know much about it though. I've never played an RPG that didn't make you have "A" rogue in the group. hehe.
I would always take a rogue and/or bard purely for the skill points toput into dialogue skills. It is mentioned in the guide how skill related dialogues are sometimes checked against your skill with a random roll, thus not automatically successful, so a good talker is essential to make the most of (or at least to be successful in) this game.
Sure, without a talker you expect to miss some stuff. But the question is what are the absolute minimal criteria for success? Is a talker necessary, or merely desirable? For that matter, how much Search do you absolutely need? I'm asking because it's fairly typical for a 3.5 party to have neither a pure rogue nor a bard.
Hmmm... I shoulda addressed this. A LE party should have a Hextoire presence: LG should have an Heironeoan focus. Less lawful parties should definitely have a rogue. All parties will do well with at least one person who has a decent Survival skill. There's a surprising amount of undead, if you are thinking of giving your cleric 'Improved Turning' (I always do, but would feel miffed if I did it and there was no undead in the game). Bards will have the most fun as face characters. An all human party (lurv those bonus feats :love: ) will need someone with a very high Int since they won't get the extra languages Demi-Humans get. TN characters could use a Druid or Ranger (but they always do, don't they?) and should remember to stop by the Church - the younger clerics are argumentative. Now there's a thought: a TN party with no nature focus at all, just a bunch of apathetic pragmatists. 8 Nira Melubbs.
You need a character with a Search of at least +3 just to get off the shop map. Then again, as dialogue on that very map points out, if you know what you're doing you probably have at least one such character as a matter of course.
