Although a BG1/2 veteran, I'm OK with four member party. I read about this size somewhere and used it my last nostalgic playthrough a few years ago. I'll never go back to six - four was so much easier to move about! And levelling up much quicker (which I believe is not an issue in BG3).
Nevertheless, sitting down to BG3 my mind defaulted to tank+lockpicker+healer+glass cannon.
But, as stated by several posters - those by the Red Queen struck a vein in particular - there is lots of overlap and flexibility provided by 5ed subclasses and backgrounds. BG3 does not have the narrow specialisation that BG1/2 had and e.g. Astarion can be used as a tank (TBH I've read that some cunning players - that's not me! - using magic items and buffs - made a very effective tank out of Viconia).
Nevertheless as Astarion rubs me the wrong way I could not imagine having him on board - yet I could not imagine NOT having a sapper/lock opener - my first CHARNAME was a high Dex Ranger with Urchin background. Only later did I notice (I'm not so quick thinking and 5ed is soooo different to what I was accustomed to) that Shadowheart makes an excellent (or adequate, YMMV) party sapper/thief. Only 3h gameplay lost
My current party is Shadowheart-Gale-Layzael-Paladin (I soooo original! Go me! :)). In the wild I lead with Miss Mysterious and Dangerous to know, for the traps, while in areas where I will talk with NPCs - with my Paladin.
No Astarion ever, whereas Wyll? Not anytime soon. I dropped out from CRPG before NWN and 4ed, thus the Warlock, Tieflings and Dragonborn are an unknown to me.
The transit from 3,5 to 5ed in general is hard enough for me, I am unlearning so many old concepts and mastering new ones that, besides Wyll simply not catching my fancy, discovering HOW exactly a Warlock works is too much for me.
So, maybe I will give the Warlock a trial run sometime later ...
