About the party, I have a liking for magic-heavy parties, and my party of preference is necromancer, cleric, vampire, dark elf and dragon. My main character is usually necro or cleric, because if you know what you're doing, you can pick up a very powerful dark elf quite quickly. A lot of people don't like the vampire, considering them underpowered, but a fully developed one does very well when armed with two daggers. Their ability to levitate is very valuable in a couple of places, and the Mistform ability is your "get out of gaol free" card - nothing much hurts a vamp in mist form, and he can get your party out of trouble if they are overmatched.