I used a KAAD setup. All except the Druid had master spear and I equipped them with the best halberds I could find. Melee damage achieved this way (with some beneficial spells in effect) easily exceeded 120, so most of the time, I could solve battles the "might" way.As for me, the destructive spells were always quite up to the task and I haven't used any magic-power-booster items (like rings of Any-School-of-Magic, Morgans or Guineveres).
I would guess that your mistake was in giving your knight a knife. I think I have even posted a rather elaborate computation about knives (a year ago? maybe two?) and it turned out that using them is generally a bad idea.
For me, the knight was the best fighter (in spite of the fact that he had the worst halberd of the three) and his 900 HP have proven useful quite a few times (as in: the rest of the party lies dead but the knight with 400 HP remaining carries them to the temple).
