Ultimate 5-man party

[danzibr]

I've been playing a phone game that draws characters from several different games, and I got to thinking...

Suppose you could select a 5-man party from any permanent playable characters from any RPG (of the traditional sort where you get into battles and gain levels and such). There are probably super broken characters that I'm not thinking of, but... what would you choose? I'd choose something like this:

1) Beats: Ryu from BoFIII. Damn he's good. The beats role... well, he can do *everything*, but he's extra good at beating.
2) Tank: Bleu from Shining Force. For pure tank I'd probably go Guntz, but Bleu has the mobility advantage.
3) Summons: Yuna from FFX. Those Aeons are good.
4) Blaster: Black Mage (or Wiz) from Final Fantasy. That hat is just too cool to pass up.
5) Healer: Raja from Phantasy Star IV. Single-target heals, multi-target heals, restore tp, rez... what more do you want?

Originally I had support instead of summons but... I couldn't think of anyone I wanted for that role.

EDIT: I just realized this 5-"man" party is almost all men. No such restriction of course.

[endoperez]

What would the goal of this party be? To be able to defeat as many games different as possible? To be the most powerful against other such parties? To be the most awesome team ever?

I'll take a page out of the Kid Radd playbook, and cheat by only looking at what the game mechanics allow.

More specifically, I'll choose characters based on what the game does or doesn't do to them, instead of looking at what mechanics let them do. Using this logic, an NPC in a typical JRPG is immune to damage and unkillable, because they don't exist in fight-space.

1) A lone kid NPC. He or she is invulnerable, impossible to damage, and totally unkillable.

2) A shopkeeper. Shopkeepers are invulnerable and unkillable. They have infinite inventory. I won't be bothered to actually name one, but anyone who's both unkillable and selling "resurrect and fully heal all party members" items would do.

3) A character with (nearly) uncapped leveling. Say, Etna from the Disgaea series. You can level up to 9999 and then reincarnate, starting from level 1 with higher stats.

4) A Priest from Wizardry V. They can cast spells,including the Labadi spell. This deals enough damage to leave the target between 1 and 8 HP, and heals the caster for the amount of damage dealt. Combine this with another characer and it's basically a two-hit kill on anything.
Stat-wise, Wizardry is a D&D clone, and Priest is a Cleric. They have only a limited number of 6th level spells to cast, and only recover spells through resting.

5) The protagonist from Morrowind, specializing in Enchantment and Alchemy. He'll create infinite feedback loops where a potion increasing intelligence lets him make an even more powerful intelligence potion, ad infinitum.

So that's an invulnerable character, an invulnerable character with infinite inventory, really big numbers, ability to reduce any enemy to under 10 hp in one action a few times each day, and ability to buff all sorts of stats without upper limits.

[The_Jackal]

Suppose you could select a 5-man party from any permanent playable characters from any RPG

I don't have to suppose, multi-boxing in MMO's is a time honoured tradition. I can still vividly remember the first time I ran into a quintet of Elemental Shamans in Alterac Valley. This was in Burning Crusade, when Draenei Shamans were fresh off the presses, so few people on the Horde side knew how to fight them. This guy (guys) held the bridge against four times his number, just with lightning bolt and shocks, and occasionally healing his hive-creature when someone looked like they might get hurt.

Then there's D20. Lots of room for grotesque builds there, just slap together a party of the best ones:

Pun-pun (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Pun-Pun_(3.5e_Optimized_Character_Build))
Hulking Hurler (http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-character-optimization/threads/886586)
Batman Wizard (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?104002-3-5e-The-Logic-Ninja-s-Guide-to-Wizards-Being-Batman)
Cleric Archer (http://dictummortuum.blogspot.com/2011/08/quickstart-cleric-archer.html)
Ultimate Skill Monkey (https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/2jup8r/5e_ultimate_skill_monkey/)

Pun-Pun and Hurler are your combat gods, Batman is your source for party-power leverage, the cleric archer covers healing while delivering respectable damage, and the Ultimate skillmonkey stays hidden in all the fights, only emerging to collect his share of the riches (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/01/26/dungeons-and-something-else-part-3), because what he's really there to do is handle traps, locks, barter, communicating, really anything that doesn't involve the direct administration of lethal force.

[T.G. Oskar]

Why, YES, I will write up my 5-man party! In fact, I have it up to 6 people, and they're pretty good in what they do. In order of...ahem, "importance"

1) Terra Branford (FFVI): Seriously; if I don't mention her, it would be like denying my own existence. She's pretty...likely to be one of the most powerful magicians in existence by being the daughter of what's essentially a living, breathing source of magic, but she's also skilled in physical combat wielding a wide variety of weapons. Also - she can pilot a mecha, and not only that, a mecha with expanded options (including a self-healing option)

2) Axel Almer (SRW A/OGs/OG Saga): Another hand-to-hand combat specialist, he's the group's resident Mech Devil. Outside of his mech, he's essentially a military officer and Monk, somewhat tanky. He's also devoid of magic in the entire group (unless you count up his "ki" abilities). However, it's when he pilots the Soulgain that he excels - HP self-regeneration, high armor, flight, and good damage skills. Oh, and he's a blast...when he loses his memory. Axel and Terra have a very strong bond, being both amnesiac at some point, and with Terra's heritage being somewhat similar to Axel's canonical love interest partner, Einst Alchemie.

3) Ky Kiske (Guilty Gear): Who said the party had to be only from RPGs? Ky is a skilled gish, specializing in lightning magic (to contrast Terra's mastery of Fire magic), and is a generally good guy overall. He's also a fighting royal (eventually), and the party's "Paladin" of sorts. Again - Ky can have some bonds with Terra, if you consider that he's quite fond of Dizzy. Expect Axel and Ky to respect each other, but bash heads as well - kind of a vitriolic relationship, where Ky is Axel's "Beowulf" while Axel is Ky's "Sol".

4) Jansen Friedh (Lost Odyssey): Part-thief, almost entirely a Black Mage, but cool nonetheless. I figure he might be closer to an Illusionist than a pure Black Mage, but there's no illusion magic in Lost Odyssey, so... However, it's his personality that makes him such an important part of the team; let's face it, even if he's somewhat an a-hole at first, he's an excellent party face. He's also pretty funny, if you think about it.

5) Anders (Dragon Age 1A & 2): Every party needs a White Mage...so why not a White Mage with attitude? Anders is a pretty powerful mage, and while he eventually goes mad, he has good reasons why - he wants the best for all mages. In a party comprised almost entirely of magic-users (barring Axel), he'd feel quite at home. He would complement his exceptional White Magic (...ahem, Creation magic) skills with some Earth-based attack spells. And, much like Terra's Esper form, Anders has the ability to invoke the spirit of Justice, which eventually becomes the spirit of Vengeance - thus, boosting him greatly. The party also needs a good dose of snark; between Jansen and Anders, you'll have enough snark to last an entire game's worth of time.

And, for a bonus...
Bonus) Rutee Katrea (Tales of Destiny): Orphan, thief and swashbuckler, and with her Swordian, an adept at Ice and Water magic (thus completing the trifecta). She's another woman in the party, a switch-healer if Anders were to be down, and her sweet demeanor complements the party quite nicely. She could easily replace anyone, since while she overlaps with Jansen, Anders and Axel, she works well on her own. Plus, the party can do well with two lovable rogues.

[DiscipleofBob]

Auron (FFX) - The most badass character in all of Final Fantasy. In a game where 9999 is the standards damage cap, in my run through the first FFX by the end boss Auron does 22,000 damage per normal hit. He comes with armor-piercing katanas, various stat-breaking abilities, in Record Keeper is an awesome Retaliater to dodge and counter pretty much everything, is the ONLY Final Fantasy character to join your party in the Kingdom Hearts series, and is just all around awesome. Really everyone else is just window dressing.

Quina (FFIX) - Blue Mage of choice. Weird as hell character, but unlike, say, Quistis, doesn't need a limit break to start using her magic, and can easily learn other monster skills by eating them.

Selphie (FFVIII) - Of all the 'white mages', I'm going to go with the one who, whenever she gets a limit break (ie. gets low on HP) can either a) use a FullCure and restore everyone to full, b) put up a magical shield around the party, c) remove one monster from the field entirely, or d) automatically win the entire battle, even against bosses.

Aerith (FFVII) - Need someone to use black magic, and Aerith can use whatever materia we give her. On top of that her limit breaks include such gems as Seal Evil, Fury Brand, and Great Gospel.

Gogo (FFVI) - Anything you can do he/she/it can do better, or at least just as well.