I was think of creating a party of 6 ninjas, because ninjas are so cool.

Just kidding. So far I have: 1. Fighter (dracon or lizardman)
2. humie Lord (possibly starting as a Priest for the 1st level) or Valkyrie (dwarf or dracon)
3. Monk (felpurr)
4. ?
5. ?
6. fairie Bishop ( 3 schools, no divinity)

I wanted a party that isn't too feeble at the start, but excels at the end. Are my 4 choices solid, and what should I add in the last 2 slots? Ranger (for scouting), Bard femme (apparently good at the start but weak at the end), Gadgeteer (inverse of the bard), mage, or a 2nd bishop (perhaps elven).

Wizardry is a long game (100 hours) and I only intend 1 playthrough, so I want a lot a lot of variety. Can I do without a bard as long as I pick up the NPC bard Dandelion? Is pickpocketing a useful skill (gadgeteer lacks this)? Is 1 bishop enough, or should I have a 2nd dedicated caster? Will i miss out on much if I don't have the all seeing ranger?

Thanks for any assistance Wizardry vets can provide. I don't think I have played such a hardcore RPG before. (Note: I also posted this in Steam, since I own the game there as well. i hope folks will not be offended by this).

Rangers are always solid. It's hard to go wrong with one, especially on your first playthrough since Scouting will help you immensely, and it's an easy convenience. It's beneficial to focus on either ranged or melee, though, rather than trying to do both.

The fifth I would make as a second dedicated caster, honestly. With a 6-man party you need more than just one bishop, especially when it comes to dispelling debuffs. I'd most likely go with a Priest, since missing out on Divinity on the bishop is going to make some of the very important priest-only spells a lot harder to cast reliably, like Magic Screen and Restoration. Mage is another good option, though.

Don't switch classes. It pretty much always makes your character weaker rather than stronger.

Bard and Gadgeteer are fun, but they absolutely require their special items to compete. Since you're only ever going to do one playthrough, you'd really want/need to use a walkthrough to some degree in order to get the most out of them.

Aim for expert skills, and try to get them early. There's a fountain in Trynton that gives your whole party +5 intelligence, but apart from that there's no way to boost your characters' base stats. So planning which expert skills you want is important. Putting +2 instead of +3 into a stat might cost you an entire level's worth of a skill.

Also, have at least 1-2 characters dedicated to using extended weapons or longer. The front rank can get pretty crowded, and there are a lot of ranged enemies in the game as well. 6 folks focusing on short weapons is a recipe for frustration.

1st add your casters to the party, then the ranged and melee guys.
The reason for that is, every time you decide to move the game will change from individual initiative
to "slot determined" initiative after the movement phase.
Only characters with high snakespeed skill may still act 1st

Whenever your casters act before the physical dmd dealers,
their aoe spells will cover more vicims and/or defuff them before the fighters can take out the remaining enemies,
perhaps with bonus because of the spells side effects.
This will result in remarably higher damage&kill output//turn for whole party.

Also add the potential summon elemental "pure" casters before those who provide buffs.

Your current party selection lacks Locks & Traps. While it is possible to get through the game like this, I wouldn't recommend it for a new character. (If you want to try, get your Fighter's Strength up as high as possible (so you can have her force open easier locks), and try to get at least 2 (preferably at least 3) characters who can cast Knock Knock to deal with harder locks. Also, in this case I would suggest Valkyrie over Lord because her ability to cheat death might help if you get unlucky with a trap.)

Recruitable NPCs won't go with you just anywhere, so I don't suggest relying on them.

Pickpocketing is not useful in this game (assuming you are playing 1.2.4, which was the last released version and the version from this website).

Bard and Gadgeteer are good if you like exploration, because you have to explore to get new instruments and gadgets.

There are three ways to find hidden items:
1. Have a Ranger in the party.
2. Turn on Search mode. This can be done anywhere, anytime, and doesn't cost anything; however, enemies can ambush you while searching (getting a free round of attacks), and this won't work while running (it works fine when walking, however).
3. Cast Detect Secrets. This 2nd level Mage/Psionic spell has a short duration, but as long as the spell lasts, you are guaranteed to notice any hidden items nearby.

This game has an immense variety of options in party building. You could have a relatively easy game, with lots of armor, damage and heal, and miss some variety. You can go for maximum effectivity damage+survival, with even more limitations in setup.

You stated you want a lot of variety, e.g. with something like
- fighter (berserk),
- bard (music, lock and traps),
- gadgeteer (engineering + modern weapon),
- ranger (search, ranged crits, alchemy),
- monk (stealth, martial arts, crits),
- mage or bishop (damage + ailment).
Divinity has some nice buffs (Armor Plate + Magic Screen), in the suggested party only the bishop could cast them. Even more variety comes with dual classing and replacing characters. As you wrote correctly, not all characters are equally "strong" throughout the game, so this setup probably will cause you some challenges and also frustration in certain phases of the game.

I found that the beginning of the game was the most difficult part, so maybe better choose characters which are strong at the beginning, if you just want to play the game once from start to finish.

Have fun

1. The fighter is okay, but I wouldn't use a Dracon or Lizardman for them. Their malus in mind magic resistance makes them VERY vulnerable to turncoat, and you really don't want them to hack trough your own party, would you?
2. Both are good choices. Considering you don't want your bishop to learn divinity, I guess you want to use them for that magic
3. The monk is a very good and easy to develop class. However, i don't think Felpurr will do it any good later on due to their water resistance malus, meaning they get slowed, poisoned and and the like very often and only few items with such resistances can be worn by a monk. Aqua Ring will be a necessity for them
4+5. You will need a character with locks&Traps. While Rogue and Ninja can fit that bill, they are more combat oriented and need their points put elsewhere. Better to use a bard or Gadgeteer for that. As for the other one, you will either need a spellcaster or a Ranger. If it's your first game, I'd go with the Ranger for his searching skill so you'll know where to find hidden stuff in the future
6. Good choice. Be warned though that fairies are very squishy, so keep them protected at all costs