with less party characters there's no room for utility or simply no roleplaying for the character you want. just completed solasta the final battle was kinda tough for me. i was on authentic mode though. i can see that's how most battle will be as we'll probably be bombarded with swarms of very fat hitpoint sponges that can have 3-4 attacks every turn on your character. it was brutal. paladin smites are limited and can only use carefully. having a paladin, a dual wield ranger as my DPS. if anything i would say a fighter/battlemaster would really help with min 3 attacks and follow up strike as compared to my dual-wield ranger. only in final battle that i actually gulp a fire giant potion, potion of speed and greater invis on my dual wield ranger. not sure how they would balance for the encounter for weaker party setup .. well maybe other than say.. cheese
