John on characters

OK, Courtney's got dibs on Female Half-Elf Cleric.
Good choice. Please also choose an alignment (like Chaotic Good.) And if
you have any particular sense of your deity (sun god, nature goddess, moon
goddess, bird-headed god of breezy summer days at the beach?)

Neds asked about the dangers of duplicating classes in the party:

It IS important to have a variety of skills in the party. Problem solving
is much more creative when you have a lot of different skills represented.
Some challenges will REQUIRE a thief. Others will require a wizard.

Since Soapy is an experienced player, he should handle one of the more
difficult classes... thief or wizard. They have the most work to do picking
out and effectively utilizing skills.

EVERY party needs a fighter or two. These characters are sometimes called
"meat shields". They can buy your spellcasters time by putting themselves
directly in harm's way. And can also become very proficient at solving
problems the old fashioned way. When a thief is unable to pick a difficult
lock, sometimes a very strong fighter can simply bash the lock to pieces
with a blunt instrument (sometimes the thief's useless and decapitated
head.)

Once I have character types (including alignment) I can work on a plausible
backstory of why you're all going to be in the same place working on the
same quest.