Knight, Archer, Cleric, Cleric is best party to be very strong in early game, middle game and end game (my fav way to play: fast run, but also op party all the way from start to end).

Key thing is get saintly reputation ASAP. I do this by completing a bunch of quests (particularly the 6 quests from the council members) and waiting to report the quest completion until you have a bunch saved up. Then when you report the completed quests back to back to back to back etc you get your reputation to saintly asap. Then Master Light Magic for both Clerics. Then kill a bunch of villagers to get to notorious reputation and get Master Dark Magic for both Clerics. All the best offensive spells are in Dark magic (toxic cloud, shrapmetal and dragon breath are all you need). Having two casters pumped up in dark magic, you'll beat the toughest clumps of monsters (before you get blasters) in castle darkmoor, castle alamos, tomb of varn etc. no problem. With your high-pumped Master Light Cleric you should always have Day of the Gods and Hour of Power casted, making your melee party that much stronger. With one Cleric just heavily pumped in Light and Dark skill, and the other Cleric just all-in heavily pumped Dark skill, your end game is so strong with the 2 op dark casters.

The archer provides the useful spells in water and air magic, like town portal, fly, etc. Don't even need to waste any skill points in earth and fire magic, and really only using water and air for their utility purposes, with maybe the occasional acid burst or implosion for offensive magic (you're mainly using your archer as a strong melee fighter).

Your melee party is strong, and that allows you to breeze through the early game before your casters get pumped up for late game dominance. Have the Knight Master spear and sword and put one in each hand. Have your archer Master axe and dagger and put one in each hand. Spec both Clerics up in Mace and Shield and they are actually not half bad melee fighters and have more HP than the sorcerer and druid.

Once you get blasters everything's a breeze.

I've beat this game many times (as well as MM3, 4-5, 7, 8 9 and X, and even MM2 once) with many diff comps and thought about ideal party. KKAC is the best overall party in part 6 to be super strong in early game, mid game AND late game.

(MM7 my ideal party is KKCS. MM9 Gladiator Gladiator Mage Mage. MMX Bladedancer Bladedancer Barbarian Druid. MM4-5 (the best video game of all time) 1. Half-Orc Barbarian, 2. Half-Orc Barbarian, 3. Half-Orc Barbarian, 4. Half-Orc Paladin, 5. Dwarf Archer, 6. Dwarf Ninja).

Drawback of this party: Only one Lloyd's Beacon user. This means that, unless you reload shops or get lucky with one, that you will only have one warp point.

(It's also worth noting that this party is just one step away from being non-viable. Replace the Archer with any other class except Sorcerer, and you now have a party that can't win without a lucky (or reloaded) item drop, as that party lacks Teleport, which is actually mandatory in MM4.)

Of course, I could also ask what party you would recommend in Swords of Xeen.

What about Paladin Druid Cleric Sorcerer, would that work well too?

The recommendations are usually PACS, KDCS or KACS.

The Paladin gives you a third healer in the Party. Good. But with less hit points. So it would be a wash for me between PDCS and KDCS

In my experience with party-based RPGs in general, hit points only really matter if:
* There is some way to get enemies to preferentially target the character in question (having the character protect weaker characters),
* There is a way to use HP as a resource (for example, taking damage in exchange for some benefit, like MM3's (somewhat broken) Half for Me spell), or
* The character in question is the most vulnerable in the party.

I don't know if MM6 is any better than the Xeen games, but the Xeen games (and MM3) did not handle this well; there's no way to have a high HP character protect a low HP one, so if you want to avoid death, the party is only as resistant as its most vulnerable party member. (This becomes especially apparent when fighting enemies who specifically target clerics or sorcerers; the HP of your front line (or, rather, what would be your front line if the game had such a mechanic in the first place) is irrelevant for keeping everyone alive.)

Shared Life lets the high hit points of a knight get spread around the group.

That is my usual party in MM6. Works really well. Both druid and Paladin suck in MM7 though.

Why does the Paladin suck in MM7? I remember having one in my party but not much else.

I'm with SirHandsome. How does it suck? It has all of the essential skills of the Knight, except it effectively swaps dual wielding for clerical magic.

Edit: For that matter, how does the Druid suck? It covers nearly all the Self and Elemental magic bases which matter in one character slot.

Unless you really like alchemy, there is no reason to take Druids in MM7, imho. Black Potions are fine but can be purchased. So you lose the highest spells in elemental to gain an okay but not necessary skill. Can you make the Druid work. Sure. But, to me, you lose more than you gain but not having a second Sorcerer. Not so in MM6 where they are Elemental Bad A$$e$.

It is due to the lack of being able to Grandmaster certain skills the sorcerer, Knight and Cleric can grandmaster in.

I'm going to assume you are comparing the Knight and Paladin, and you are comparing the Sorcerer/Cleric to the Druid.

The Paladin can GM all the important skills the Knight can GM (namely Repair Item). Paladins can still Master the Sword for dual wielding, but I expect they get a lot more mileage out of GM Mace for that chance to paralyze on hit. They trade in the Knight's dual wielding for Master Self magic, making them more defensive to the Knight's offense.

The Druid can't GM ID Item (Scholar underling solves that) or Merchant (gold eventually is very plentiful regardless). That just leaves spells. Sure, the Druid can't learn Light/Dark, instead getting Self + Elemental. They only really lose out on Invisibility (extended duration), Enchant Item (more powerful enchants), Town Portal (when monsters are close), Lloyd's Beacon, Protection From Magic (death/eradicate), Power Cure, and Resurrection (I guess).

Of those, Protection From Magic and Power Cure are the only ones that really matter.

I figure Paladins and Druids are both solid classes. Look at the Ranger for a class that sucks.

Or when you just want to save time travelling all over the world just to do business in town (and either don't have Lloyd's Beacon set up there or would rather use your beacon locations somewhere else).

Armsmasterwas a good one too, I remember.