I'm happy to say that after 5 years of grinding this question in my mind, I think I've finally found my answer.
Kinda ironic that it is the same party composition that I used on my playthrough of the first game, Divinity Original Sin.
Yesterday I started the quest Hero's Rest. And as soon as I saw my enemies I knew I had found my answer. I feel like the 4 "heroes" party is the party composition that I've been searching for. It is the same party composition shown in the trailer of the game. And it's the basic pattern that I have seen throughout the game so far, in the enemy AI parties. (a reminder here that I haven't finished the game, I think I'm not even half way through)
The 4 heroes party also seems to point out the 4 basic races of the game. Not counting with Undead which was added later, from what I've read.
Another indication that I have for this party configuration are the Cranley Huwbert's books. So far I found "Of Rogues" and "Of Warriors". I imagine there are other 2 called something like "Of Wizards" and "Of Rangers". I searched for a collection of all Huwbert's books on the internet but didn't find anywhere. Anyone know where to find the whole encyclopedia? 🙂📚
The party composition from the Hero's Rest quest is:
Garrick, a human mage
Bromley, a dwarf ranger
Vydia, a lizard tank
Halla, an elven rogue
Maybe there's a Class-Race connection here. The Red Lizard being a lizard tank, Sebille being an elven rogue, and Lohse being a human mage. Maybe not.
Seems to me that the archetype intended by the devs is: 2 melee characters (fighter and rogue), and 2 ranged characters (mage and ranger). Maybe not, maybe that's just me.
It's very hard to guess what is the "right" party in a game that is so big and dynamic, like DOS II. Does this archetypal party even exists? Maybe not.
I called Strength, Finesse and Intelligence the "3 Pillars" of the game. So to this party configuration I'm giving the name of "the 4 corners" of the game's class system.
Stabbey gave a very good and succinct answer to my original post. He clearly knows more about the game than I do. His answer also seems to be the consensus among other veteran players that I've read. 2 physical damage dealers, 2 magic damage dealers. That is definitely what the 2 Armour bars lead us to believe.
So maybe Stabbey actually gave the right answer to my question. But I'd say I was making the wrong question then.
As I said in my original post, what I mean by "default perfect party" is not clear even for me. I asked what is the most powerful party in this game and Stabbey might just have answered that question.
But I would say then... that maybe I didn't know what I was searching for, but recognised it when I found it.
What I wanted to know in other words, is what party "fits" not only the combat system, but the whole game, including the story, side mechanics like the Civil Abilities and even the predefined companions. So, a more philosophical approach I guess, to "filling all the gaps".
In my original post I used the word balance to describe the party that I was searching for. But looking back I think I shouldn't have used it. The videogame world already gave it's own baggage of meanings to the word balance. Balance in videogames has much more of a mathematical meaning, which was the meaning intended by Stabbey, than what I had in mind using the word balance.
In conclusion, I would like to repeat that I didn't finish the game, so I'm totally open to change my current idea of what is "The Perfect Party" as I gather more clues to solve this mystery 🕵️‍♂️. But I feel like the current version will be permanent.
