Imma add my 2 cents to this conversation and say no, stick with 4. MAYBE 5, but thats absolutely it.
All this nonsense that players are saying about conversations should be with everyone involved, huge parties, and what have you. This is 2020, games are no longer easy, or handed to you. You have to actually -PLAY- them, and that means making, (everyone duck!), decisions!
Everyone can talk in one conversation? Offering their rolls to conversational choices? Why have choices at all then? You are loading the dice. How is this even fun when you "win" every conversation? Why. Roll. The. Dice. At. All.
6 member party? Why choose what classes you want to bring that would be best for whatever situation? You aren't making any decisions at this point, you are just freerolling and claiming a win for something you didn't Actually win in the first place because you started a combat with a loaded out squad.
To be completely fair to the OP, whom for the record is the exact same age as I am, down to the month, which is creepy and cool, their suggestion is essentially the creating of a different mode, which also includes a warning that this makes the game easier (I would use the word 'free', but I digress), I don't hate having more options, nor will I ever, but this distinction MUST be made.
Your argument about been able to have everything and leave nothing behind removing any choices is very valid in EA where we have 5 companions and 6 classes to choose from meaning if you was a ranger you would have everything, which is one of the reasons I said focus on the game as is for now and add it at launch. And we already know there are another 6 classes planned for launch Barbarian, Bard, Druid, Monk, Paladin & Sorcerer. If they make 12 companions you'd be leaving half of them behind and two thirds if the make 18, I don't think they have said exactly how many companions there will be so I have pulled those numbers out of thin air. I'm not opposed to the four player party and I'm glad that the people who like it can pay the way they want, and people who like solo challenge runs are catered for since you don't have to recruit anyone if you don't want to, but those of us who like six player parties have no real choice implemented but Larian themselves, we have to rely on modders and risk it breaking the game in unexpected ways beyond balance. To me it is immersion breaking to leave highly capable adventurers behind at camp while I face all the danger myself so I will only be recruiting as many people fit into my party, leaving plenty to discover on subsequent playthroughs. Oh and I'm July 3rd if that makes any difference to you.
Originally Posted by jayn23
Just to add my point of view to the discussion, while like most of you guys I would preferer a party of 6 for multiple reasons most were mentioned before so no point in going over them again. Larian has already acknowledged that many fans want a 6 player party and they still decided to go for a 4 party build because they felt it was the "sweet spot" so asking them to change to 6 party and rebalance the whole game in very unlikely, I think we should be more realistic with our requests and go with what the OP suggested - they continue to follow there vision and create the game for a 4 man party, add a option in menus to unlock a 6 man party with a pop up notifying you that the game was balanced for 4 man party and difficulty level is untested for this build. this has a much higher chance of happening if they see the demand for it.
and for those thinking that what's the point of a 6 man party if combat is balanced for 4 - well i can give you at least one after act 1 we need to choose who moves on with us to act2 and who is left behind, this way we get to take more companions with us - more companions quests to do, better RP and banter etc..
I normally play games for story and not challenge so I usually pick an easier difficulty, and if a 6 man mode is not balanced I would probably play it on hard difficulty instead of normal to get the base level challenge. Yes a six man party might not be as challenging as four a man but there will be a fair bit we can do to offset that with difficulty settings ourselves without Larian having to do anything other than implement a setting to be able to increase party size. People who like challenge and limitations are catered for already since they can do self imposed challenges, that's why nuzlock is a thing, people like to be challenged, but someone who wants a larger party to take a less cookie cutter and more divers party has no options, and no I don't believe "let the modders fix it" is a valid response. Larian is big enough with enough staff that it is something they should be able to implement themselves without relying on their customers to fix their game or add features that large portions of their fan base want since it is a feature of the two previous games this is a sequel to.
