I'm told that the only way of getting into the room behind the first door on the left in Drangheim prison is to wait for a guard to go in and try and follow him, your party can't open the door itself. I seem to remember somebody saying that this was the room where the prisoners are "questioned", but I can't guarantee that.

I don't know the exact figures, but you need high disarm skills to get into any black chest, and that one is a long way from being the most difficult. That honour goes to the chest at the bottom of the underground lake under the Dook's Castle in Guberland, where my experience indicates that simple GM in disarm is not enough to guarantee success, despite what the crib sheets say.

I would guess that master in disarm would probably get you into the Drangheim Prison black chest safely, but again, I can't guarantee that. Expert certainly won't do it. I generally try and avoid dungeons with black chests until my characters are fairly well developed, and I usually include an assassin in my parties - he's the only one who can GM disarm.

The two characters I normally avoid are paladin and ranger. These are supposed to be "half and half" characters, with fair competence in both might and magic. In my experience, they are substandard fighters, and desperately poor at magic. Their magic skills are only useful in the early stages of the game, before your party gets promoted. If you want a half and half character, I recommend the druid. Get him to GM in unarmed combat and dodging, and you have a bonny melée fighter with good magic skills. His only real weakness is in ranged combat.

I would also take a lich in preference to a mage. Souldrinker is IMO a more useful spell than Eye of the Storm, and whereas the mage can only get expert in thrown weapons, the lich can master it. Give him the artifact throwing axe Tillhygge, and he does a lot of damage. (Give the throwing dagger Tolleri to your assassin.

HTH!