Today the AD&D session was just one big fight. It took about seven hours of real-time to resolve as our group of eight adventurers fought a good thirty to forty bad guys. It got a bit tight at times, as the battle swung back and forth, and two characters died. But we did win, garnering some small amount of experience points and treasure. It was fun, a bit of a nailbiter, and it once again pointed out some of our lacks.

In terms of party balance, we are too biased on spellcasters. Two wizards, although one is below average party level, form the basis of our firepower. Two clerics, actually this week it was three clerics, are capable fighters and good at healing but not terribly useful otherwise. One thief, who is also a capable fighter and adds needed diversity. And two fighters, although one of them is a fighter/cleric so is below average party level. The problem being that in a fight, with the clerics engaged and the wizards protected, we don't have enough fighting strength to win without heavy magic support.

Let's rate the fighting capabilities of the group. We have one great fighter who has good hit points, good armor class, and good damage. He is the basis of our fighting strength. We have a good fighting cleric who has good hit points, good armor class, and average damage. He can stand for a long time but takes a while to take down his foes. We have another cleric who has average hit points, average armor class, and below average damage. This is more of our healing cleric since he can't fight that well so is more useful healing people if possible. Our last cleric, who died and got reincarnated as a wolverine, I don't remember her stats. Assume about average everywhere since she didn't do too well in the last fight.

The fighter/cleric has average hit points, below average armor class, and good damage. The cleric spells aren't useful in combat, so this character is only useful as a fighter. In general the character takes a lot of damage and does a lot of damage. The thief has average hit points, average armor class, and average damage. He does have an axe that can occassionally call lightning so he's rating is a bit higher. Our primary magic user is useless in physical combat, being below average in all three categories. Our secondary magic user is actually quite skilled with weapons. He is rated as having average hit points, below average armor class, and good damage. Since he's a wizard his THAC0 is bad, he also has a ring of vampiric regeneration and gauntlets of ogre power. Overall his rating is probably a bit higher than the numbers indicate.

So when I look at the party, I see that we have one all-around good fighter, two fighters that can dish it out but will take a lot of damage and go down quickly, one blocker, one wizard who better not get into a physical fight, and three fighters who can hold their own but won't turn the tide of battle. I suppose this is a rather normal party, with characters who are a good in different areas. We tend to win most of our battles, although we're also smart enough to avoid most of the battles we have a low chance of winning. Actually, we as players tend to overestimate the opposition, so avoid more battles than we have to. But better to be safe than sorry.

I guess it's a bit irksome to me since I tend to like playing the combat specialists. And my first character was designed to emphasize my personal philosophy: lots of hit points, lots of damage, armor is not important. The character that I have I've partially inherited from another player, and I've molded it in my image. Great damage, good THAC0, lots of attacks, good hit points for the level, although average for the party since she's a couple of levels lower. Really bad armor class, almost as bad as the mages. Spells chosen not for their general usefulness but for that occassional usefulness that might apply once every three or four sessions. It's nice to play someone who is skilled enough to carry the party (which she is not), but it's also nice to have a certain style and flair (which she does have), and to stick with the character concept through thick and thin.