Wich is your favorite party?

Lot in common with yours, for some of the same reasons.

Half-elf Paladin (oath of devotion) for the combat medic/smiting/tanking role (sword and shield!).

High-elf Wizard (two words: shock. arcanist.) for the nuking and enchanting.

Sylvan-elf Cleric (lightning domain) for the nuking, off-tanking, and healing.

Sylvan-elf Ranger (hunter with lowlife background) for the archery, free food, and lock picking.

Having the Cleric be a dwarf is also a thing, which has the upside of being authentic to the Thor-like shtick because free war hammer proficiency, but I really just don’t like the aesthetics of the dwarves. Fighters and Rogues just don’t really seem to bring enough to the table for me to pick them over Paladin/Wizard/Cleric/Ranger, though I could see Rogue for skills/archery and let Cleric cover food management. The subclass variety for Cleric and Paladin is definitely appealing. And I just can’t see the point of taking a non-Darkvision race even now that they’ve reverted to tabletop rules rather than the abominable home brew lighting scheme they had before. Humans in particular just don’t bring enough to the table to bother giving up Darkvision, let alone the racial benefits of elves and dwarves,

You can take the greenmage focus on the wizard for Goodberry while not losing much from the standard wizard playbook. That would allow you to slot in something else for the ranger, probably a cleric. I'm not really that interested in optimizing myself but I took that quartet on my latest playthrough and it works rather well.

Dwarf Patrol!

Hill Dwarf fighter (spell blade). Ol’ reliable; second wind, action surge, and expeditious retreat so no one can escape his grasp. AC 24 with full plate, +1 shield, defensive style, ring of protection, and the AC feat means he rarely gets hit. Beat stick, that can take a hit (but no one can hit him...).

Second Hill Dwarf fighter (spell blade). See above.

Hill Dwarf life cleric. Keep the fighters alive with healing spells, and scare away undead.

Hill Dwarf rogue. Every party needs a thief, just like Tolkien said.

WRT Goodberry, I always ended up with too much food when I had someone with it in my party.

Rations are super cheap, and you find more as you travel, so I haven’t had any issue without it.

What else are you going to spend your 8,000gold on? XD

Green mage vs Shock Arcanist could be interesting just to try once, but it seems like SA will hit so much harder with spells than GM would, and archery seems pointless if you can Firebolt anyway, so I think you lose less to let a Ranger be your archer/survivalist than having a Wizard as your archer/survivalist (especially given the WIS checks on survival). I can’t see using GM unless just trying stuff out or doing something like a 4-Wizard run. 

I've tried a lot of variations (even did 4 clerics once, right now I'm doing 1 Ranger + 3 Paladins).

When the game releases in it's final form and I do my first complete playthrough, I'll probably use:

Sylvan Elf Lowlife Ranger (high DEX for dual wield and lockpicking/stealth/traps)

Human Spy Fighter (Spellblade).  The "your weapon is always considered to be a magic weapon for purposes of what it can hit" is actually pretty nice.  Plus, Spellblade gets cantrips so they can cast Light on themselves at level 3.

Dwarf Lawkeeper Cleric (not settled on domain, one of Battle, Sun or Oblivion).  Lawkeeper for the martial weapons proficiency.

Halfling Wizard (Shock Arcanist).  Usually take the Academic background for the free Manacalon Rosary, but Sellsword is an option for the Medium armor proficiency.  With 5e rules, you can wear armor and cast spells as long as you're proficient with the armor.  If your DEX is 14 or lower, this is seriously worth considering.

I did try Greenmage once (High Elf, to get Longbow proficiency) and I was actually surprised.  At low levels, the Archery style giving +2 to hit means that bows are usually better than your cantrip for hitting and they get your DEX bonus to damage so that's likely a +3 to +5 whereas cantrips are just straight die rolls.  Once you hit level 5 and your cantrips gain a bonus die, you'd think they'd be better (e.g. fire bold at 2d10 vs. longbow of d8+dex).  However, the special ability that kicks in at level 6 whereby you can entangle a foe is actually pretty potent.  You can stop somebody in their tracks and keep them from getting to you, or prevent them from fleeing.  I pinned a Brood inside my cleric's Guardian Spirits and sat back and watched as the spirits slowly melted it.  The Brood, not having a ranged attack, just stood there impotently while it died.

All half elf group.  Paladin, Battle Cleric, SA Wizard and either a Ranger or Spellblade Fighter.

I don't think Goodberry is necessary.  If you have enough Survival skills, you end up with a ton of food.

I also agree something needs to be done about Humans.  The standard version isn't very good.  Some variant human needs to be made.  Usually this involves a free feat but seeing that Solasta is kinda weak on feats right now, I don't really have a suggestion.

All half elf group.  Paladin, Battle Cleric, SA Wizard and either a Ranger or Spellblade Fighter.

I don't think Goodberry is necessary.  If you have enough Survival skills, you end up with a ton of food.

I also agree something needs to be done about Humans.  The standard version isn't very good.  Some variant human needs to be made.  Usually this involves a free feat but seeing that Solasta is kinda weak on feats right now, I don't really have a suggestion.

Half-elf for the Paladin makes sense (free 2 CHA plus 1 STR or CON), but wouldn’t elves (sylvan for cleric and ranger, high for spell blade and wizard) or even dwarves be strictly better for the other three? And yeah, humans seem pointless right now, can’t see a good mechanical reason to bring one or think of aa great fix for them given the current limits in the game (mediocre feats, emphasis on lighting, etc). 

Half-elf for the Paladin makes sense (free 2 CHA plus 1 STR or CON), but wouldn’t elves (sylvan for cleric and ranger, high for spell blade and wizard) or even dwarves be strictly better for the other three? And yeah, humans seem pointless right now, can’t see a good mechanical reason to bring one or think of aa great fix for them given the current limits in the game (mediocre feats, emphasis on lighting, etc).

Half elf master race in 5e!

Just a clarification, half elves get +2 CHA and +1 on two other attributes. There’s no real reason to go above 16 in any ability score since the max is 17 with +2 with maybe the exception of strength and carry weight which is minor. So +1 in two abilities is a huge deal. And CHA is a great social ability and never hurts to have more.

In that regard half elf is the same as any other race build wise in pretty much any class. In addition, I get more skills, more languages, sleep and charm resistances/immunity, and darkvision.

And as much as I like dwarves, the reduction in movement is pretty significant. I know I constantly need that extra square when I’m closing in on a monster. 

Shadowcaster is overall my favorite class and they make for good skirmishers. They can do a lot of damage at range or in melee, while their varied skillset and expertise makes them useful in exploring. There doesn't seem to be any enchanted shortswords or raperis except Whiteburn (which I've never been able to craft) and Doomblade Rapier (which doesn't count as magical for overcoming damage resistance), so they are mostly limited to +1 daggers for melee though.

Along with them, I like to have at least a Wizard and a Cleric, since they are the only full casters in the game right now. Of the Wizard subclasses, I like the Greenmage the most. +2 to accuracy and dex mod to damage makes it a preferable alternative to Firebolt levels 1-4 and still a viable option at levels 5-6, though Potent Cantrip ultimately makes Shadow Dagger perferable due to guaranteed damage. Getting light armor and Ranger spells is convenient. I don't find Loremaster or Shock Arcanist to be particularly interesting or to bring anything I feel I need to a fight that the baseline Wizard doesn't. Shock Arcanist is boring and functional, but Loremaster seriously could benefit from a rebalancing to make it more than a meme. Same goes for the Insight Domain for Cleric. Once Sorcerer becomes available, I'll see if they have more interesting variants than Wizard.

On the Cleric side, I've yet to find any one archetype I prefer, but Sun Domain coupled with Potent Cantrip makes for a very fun Sacred Flame spam once it hits level five. Oblivion Domain has more useful class features though and I'd say Battle Domain probably makes for the strongest damage caster, with Magic Missile, Flaming Sphere and Fireball added to their spell list. Elemental Domain also makes for useful spellcasters, but with more focus on utility than Battle has.

The last slot goes to someone who can stack AC, usually a martial class. Spellblades, Paladins and Hunter Rangers are solid options, but a Sellsword Shadowcaster Rogue or Life Domain Cleric can make good frontliners too. Spellblades make particularly good dex based martials, because there is a serious lack of magical finesse weapons apart from daggers. Their level 3 ability makes every weapon bypass resistance to non-magical weapons, which is useful for stuff like the Doomblade Rapier.

This is more of a generalized setup than a specific party and it kinda showcases part of the reason why I wish we'd have gotten Druid instead of Ranger. We will have both d6 Arcane casters and a multitude of martial characters, but only one divine caster? A shame, really.

Half-elf for the Paladin makes sense (free 2 CHA plus 1 STR or CON), but wouldn’t elves (sylvan for cleric and ranger, high for spell blade and wizard) or even dwarves be strictly better for the other three? And yeah, humans seem pointless right now, can’t see a good mechanical reason to bring one or think of aa great fix for them given the current limits in the game (mediocre feats, emphasis on lighting, etc).

Half elf master race in 5e!

Just a clarification, half elves get +2 CHA and +1 on two other attributes. There’s no real reason to go above 16 in any ability score since the max is 17 with +2 with maybe the exception of strength and carry weight which is minor. So +1 in two abilities is a huge deal. And CHA is a great social ability and never hurts to have more.

Ok. But that still seems strictly worse than a high elf in the case of wizard (2 DEX 1 INT vs 2 CHA 1 INT 1 CON/DEX) or sylvan elf (2 DEX 1 WIS vs 2 CHA 1 WIS 1 DEX/STR/CON). 17 DEX on an archer in particular lets you hit 18 from Sylvan Archer at 5 instead of the ASI. I can see half-elf as the mechanical preference for CHA casters, for sure, but right now that’s solely paladins (who love being half-elf for sure).

In that regard half elf is the same as any other race build wise in pretty much any class. In addition, I get more skills, more languages, sleep and charm resistances/immunity, and darkvision.

1 skill, 1 language vs either a cantrip or increased movement (and stealth skill). The resistances/immunity/dark vision are all the same. The free weapon proficiencies are nice on paper, but haven’t seemed super relevant in any playthrough yet. Though I guess it did allow my Paladin and Cleric to both run with Longsword rather than the cleric stuck with a mace.

And as much as I like dwarves, the reduction in movement is pretty significant. I know I constantly need that extra square when I’m closing in on a monster.

I didn’t notice that too much, but my dwarf was a cleric so she was casting a lot. My next couple of parties were all elves.

Humans just don’t seem worth bringing, and I’m not sure what kind of mechanical strength they would have to give halflings for me to be willing to roll one. 😂

Half-elf for the Paladin makes sense (free 2 CHA plus 1 STR or CON), but wouldn’t elves (sylvan for cleric and ranger, high for spell blade and wizard) or even dwarves be strictly better for the other three? And yeah, humans seem pointless right now, can’t see a good mechanical reason to bring one or think of aa great fix for them given the current limits in the game (mediocre feats, emphasis on lighting, etc).

Half elf master race in 5e!

Just a clarification, half elves get +2 CHA and +1 on two other attributes. There’s no real reason to go above 16 in any ability score since the max is 17 with +2 with maybe the exception of strength and carry weight which is minor. So +1 in two abilities is a huge deal. And CHA is a great social ability and never hurts to have more.

Ok. But that still seems strictly worse than a high elf in the case of wizard (2 DEX 1 INT vs 2 CHA 1 INT 1 CON/DEX) or sylvan elf (2 DEX 1 WIS vs 2 CHA 1 WIS 1 DEX/STR/CON). 17 DEX on an archer in particular lets you hit 18 from Sylvan Archer at 5 instead of the ASI. I can see half-elf as the mechanical preference for CHA casters, for sure, but right now that’s solely paladins (who love being half-elf for sure).

In that regard half elf is the same as any other race build wise in pretty much any class. In addition, I get more skills, more languages, sleep and charm resistances/immunity, and darkvision.

1 skill, 1 language vs either a cantrip or increased movement (and stealth skill). The resistances/immunity/dark vision are all the same. The free weapon proficiencies are nice on paper, but haven’t seemed super relevant in any playthrough yet. Though I guess it did allow my Paladin and Cleric to both run with Longsword rather than the cleric stuck with a mace.

And as much as I like dwarves, the reduction in movement is pretty significant. I know I constantly need that extra square when I’m closing in on a monster.

I didn’t notice that too much, but my dwarf was a cleric so she was casting a lot. My next couple of parties were all elves.

Humans just don’t seem worth bringing, and I’m not sure what kind of mechanical strength they would have to give halflings for me to be willing to roll one. 😂

Standard Human isn't known for being very good, which makes it a shame we don't have Variant Human or some sort of homebrew option more akin to Dragonmark Humans from Eberron.

Tolkien Fan, so all my PCs are high elves:

Pal/oath of ancients or Ftr/Spellblade

Rngr - Hunter

Cleric of Einar -Battle Domain

Wiz - Shock Arcanist (Sellsword for medium armor)

Yeah, I really gotta give Shadowcaster Rogue and Spellblade Fighter a shot next run. I wish we could have 5 or toon party options (they’d for sure need to have some kind of scaling on the fights, so I’m not holding my breath on that) to allow more build variety in a run.

Hill Dwarf Battle Cleric and Half Elf Paladin with Shield Block as the front line, both with Shield of Faith. Elven Wizard backline, Greenmage for overkill, never misses with a bow. Experimenting with sneaky height advantage bow rogue for wicked sneak attack damage.

My next run will be four hapless, below-average humans to see how damn hard the default difficulty setting can be.