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from being a Dreadmaster unless one took yet another non-favored class into the mix. Also, the full AC benefits wouldn't come into play until very high levels (20+) had been reached, thus making the time prior to it very risky.

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4.2 - Healer & buffer & bombardier

Drow Morninglord of Lathander(13)/
Druid(17)
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NOTE: This character must be a female to avoid multiclassing EXP penalties.
Note also that Lawful Good can't be selected to access Druid levels. Picking
Neutral Good allows the use of Holy Word instead of Blasphemy.

The second character of this party is the "dumb muscles" stereotype. By assigning the tank role for the party's divine caster makes it possible to tank both INT and CHA stats, allowing impressive stats elsewhere. This also makes this character an optimal choice for hauling heavy treasure items around, as the other characters don't really shine with their carrying capacities.

Use this character as you would use any tank in normal mode, but switch to ranged attacks and spell bombardment in HOF mode. This character doesn't have good AC, so avoid melee as much as possible. However, the spell resistance allows this character to enter the blast zones in case the decoy needs healing. Other than that, just blast away and watch your enemies take the punishment.

As for level-up strategy, going straight Morninglord for the first 13 levels brings Resurrection spell into play as soon as possible, to recover from fights where monster happen to score a stream of lucky hits on the decoy and killing him. The final boost to Barkskin spell comes into play at character level 25, just in time to match the later HOF monsters. In case the life seems too tough to handle in normal mode, take a detour for 3 or 4
Druid levels to get an early access to the Barkskin spell and some minor blasting spells. I would still wait at least until the Heal spell is acquired.

Starting statistics:
  --------------------
STR 18
DEX 18
CON 16
INT 5
WIS 18
CHA 5

If you don't want to min-max, use 16/16/14/8/18/8 instead.

Use the level-up points to boost WIS, and boost it further by quaffing two potions of Holy Transference (in case you don't use them to boost the decoy) and wear the second Every God's Ring once you buy it in HOF mode. An alternate strategy is to boost CON to gain up to +120 hit points by level
30 (together with Ring of Hearty Strength), making this character able to stand and fight considerably longer under constant beating from HOF monsters.
I'd take the WIS boost, to boost spell DCs and to gain plenty of extra spells (remember that bonus spells will be counted twice since both Cleric and Druid use the WIS stat for them) since this is an ARCANE party after all, concentrating on blasting as much as possible.

Here are the skills and Feats you should take for this character.

Skills : Concentration

Feats  : 1 - Combat Casting
3 - Power Attack
6 - Cleave
9 - Subvocal Casting
12 - Improved Critical
15 - Spell Focus: Evocation
18 - Greater Spell Focus: Evocation
21 - Discipline
24 - Iron Will
27 - Great Fortitude
30 - Lightning Reflexes

As this character starts out as a melee-oriented character, taking various combat-enhancing feats is a must. As golems and such are the only kind of enemy that we need this character's melee capability for, taking other types of weapon besides maces wouldn't help much. Combat Casting and Subvocal casting make sure that the casting ability, even mid-combat, isn't compromised. GSF: Evocation starts to pay off as this character concentrates more on blasting. The rest is just plain-vanilla filler feats.

Comments, strategies & notes:
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During normal mode, use this as you would use any normal melee tank, just keep her protected with a Stoneskin when it comes available. Later on as the monsters start hitting the low AC no matter what you do, it's time to change tactics into a more cautious one. Have the decoy charge into combat while this character casts a spell or two in order to have the enemy concentrate on the decoy. THEN charge into combat, filled to gills with various buffs. After the party finds the Flying Death throwing axe, "charge" into combat by throwing the axe instead. Remember that this character isn't protected by high AC, going melee is too risky in most situations.

Spell selection:
  ----------------

Number in parentheses denotes take only up to this many, otherwise you can mix'n'match as much as you like.

Cleric:

1: Sanctuary(1), Remove Fear(1), Bless
2: Draw Upon Holy Might, Delay Poison(0-1), Bull's Strength(0-2), Aid(2-4)
3: Magic Circle Against Evil(1-3), Prayer, Remove Disease (0-1),
Exaltation(0-1)
4: Defensive Harmony(0-1), Death Ward(0-4), Recitation(2-3),
Neutralize Poison(0-1), Holy Power
5: Champion's Strength(2-4), Raise Dead(0-1),
Flame Strike, Undead Ward(0-1), Iron Skins(0-2)
6: Heal
7: Resurrection(1-2), Greater Shield of Lathander, Holy Word

Sanctuary and Remove fear are great backup spells, and Bless is the only good one after them. Draw Upon Holy Might becomes useful at level 12, before that the bonus is negligible. Delay Poison and Bull Strength become obsolete as better versions are learned, but Aid is required for maximal damage, so keep a few copies memorized. Magic Circle Against Evil is a good boost for its saving throws and a must if Gate is used, otherwise Prayer is more preferable as it also boosts damage. Remove Disease and Exaltation might be good to have as backups, but there are other ways of acquiring the same effect. Defensive Harmony might save the day during early chapters, but it becomes obsolete rather fast. Death Ward is must against strong spell casters but otherwise useless. Neutralize Poison is needed only if you haven't bough potions for it yet. Holy Power is one of the important damage boosters, be sure to have it on as much as possible when doing battle. Recitation is nice generic boost/debuff, while Holy Power boosts damage. Champion's Strength is a great help for the weak tank/decoy and also boosts our damage for a long time. Raise Dead becomes obsolete when this character finally learns
Resurrection. Undead Ward is only useful in the Holy Avenger Battle. Iron
Skins reduces the threat from Slayer Knights when Stoneskin fails. If there are extra castings left, put them into Flame Strike for blasting away.
Heal is a must for the only Cleric in the party, and Sol's Orb isn't any better than beating the enemy with your mace. Resurrection is a staple and
Greater Shield of Lathander allows for kamikaze attacks. Holy Word is an excellent attack spell as it neutralizes any enemy group for a while, allowing for regroup.

Druid:

1: Sunscorch, Entangle(0-2)
2: Barkskin
3: Call Lightning, Storm Shell(0-1), Spike Growth
4: Flame Strike, Thorn Spray, Freedom of Movement(0-1), Spike Stones
5: Static Charge
6: Sol's Searing Orb, Fire Seeds
7: Heal(0-1), Fire Storm
8: Finger of Death, Aura of Vitality(1-3)
9: Tremor, Mass Heal(1-2)

Sunscorch is a respectable 1st level blaster spell. Entangle can make some encounters easier by reducing the amount of monsters that needs to be fought at one time. Barkskin is the ONLY reason why a Druid was included into the party, so don't even consider using the 2nd level slots for anything else.
Call Lightning works wonders OUTDOORS, Storm Shell is a bonus against
Will'o'Wisps in Fellwood and Spike Growth is OK spell to use when the party is adventuring indoors. Flame Strike and Thorn Spray are both good spells.
Freedom of Movement is an important ability for the decoy, so keep this spell memorized until the ring of Freedom of Movement is found. Spike Stones combined with Spike Growth makes it tough for enemies to cross some choke point. Static Charge is an excellent fire-and-forget spell, making it a very useful pre-combat buff - no need to waste castings on other spells on this level, unless enemies happen to be lightning immunes. Sol's Searing Orb and Fire Seeds provide single-target or area effect destruction, choose whichever is needed more. 7th level finally brings the heavy artillery into play with the Firestorm spell - use Heal only if the Heals from being a
Cleric just aren't enough. Finger of Death and Tremor round up the blasting capabilities nicely. Aura of Vitality is nice, mainly because of the CON bonus that lasts for quite a while, and Mass Heal is the ultimate reset button when the party has several wounded characters.

Alternate Character Choices:
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It could be possible to change Morninglord levels for Dreadmaster levels, bringing those lovely +2 WIS quest awards into play. Even if Dreadmaster doesn't get much in terms of blasting spells, the extra +2 DC for spells surely makes a difference with the Druid repertoire. However, this would make it impossible to utilize the very useful Holy Word spell - it depends a bit on one's play style if this is a major drawback or not.

One could, of course, utilize a human instead of a Drow, making leveling up a couple notches easier. However, as this character is very much necessary to keep the rather fragile decoy character alive, entering the danger zone of various area-damage spells would pretty much mean death for this character - not a good thing. Having a good spell resistance makes it possible to walk right through such zones. Choosing the Deep Gnome wouldn't be too wise, as it'd bring the -20% EXP penalty unless the levels were kept equal, and -2 STR penalty on the party's only melee character seems a bit counterproductive.

Furthermore, the Resurrection spell could be replaced by Raise Dead and
Heal, allowing one to make the level split Cleric 11/Druid 19. This would allow for a bit more high-level Druid spells. Also, since the Druid learns the Heal spell, this could be pushed all the way to Cleric 10/Druid 20, making Raise Dead the only available method apart from scrolls & NPC healers to bring back dead characters. On the other hand, making the level split exactly half and half would allow for 8th level spells from both classes, making Firestorm available on both sides.

Overall, the exact layout of this character doesn't really matter that much, as long as it has at least decent melee capability, some method of raising the dead (scrolls & NPCs alone are a cumbersome choice) and at least
12 levels as a Druid. No divine caster can match the destructive power of an arcane caster anyway, as the number of Firestorms is rather limited when one compares how many Wail of the Banshees, Horrid Wiltings, DBFBs and
Skull Traps any high-level arcane caster can churn out without needing to rest.

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4.3 - Buffer & debuffer & bombardier & diplomat

Aasimar Paladin(1)/Sorcerer(29)
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NOTE: This character must be Lawful Good in alignment.

The third character in this party is a bombardier that also carries the necessary low-level buffing spells to keep both the tank/decoy and the berserker happy. A race without spell resistance was chosen because it's unlikely that we're going to be bombarding ourselves, having the decoy working as a relay satellite for our air strikes.

This character is also the party's diplomat and "public face". Even if being a Paladin means that we have to refuse rewards, who says that the
Paladin character would have to be the one that goes get the reward? Any other char can do that, and we'll get the best of both worlds.

Start as a Paladin and take only sorcerer levels from there on.

Starting statistics:
  --------------------
STR 8
DEX 8
CON 18
INT 18
WIS 8
CHA 20

Low STR and DEX is acceptable since we're not going to do melee and our
AC will suck anyway, so it doesn't matter if it sucks just a bit more. This allows for maxed CON, INT and CHA. Low WIS is compensated by the Paladin's
Divine Grace bonus.

If you don't want to min-max, use 8/10/12/18/12/20 instead.