Advice on what is missing from this group...

[Garkaun]

Hello all. My current party has a dilemma. It is a very large group of which we are alright with as the players are pretty mature and able to focus pretty well. Table chat tends to be a minimum and usually related to the topic so its not disrupting. With that being said I have 8 players at my table. We (I) are not concerned with the size at all.

What I am concerned with is the party make up. Two of the players have yet to pick and are asking me what I think would fit best. My first pick was play what they wanted to and what they thought they would have the most fun playing. They said anything would work they wanted what would round out the party most.

So here is a list of my party as of yet. What do you think would be the most two beneficial characters after reading the following 6?

1)Male Half Orc Ranger
-Will be ranged. 1st Feat is Point Blank Shot
-10HP. Favored Enemy: Orc
2)Female Ifrit Sorceror
-Weapon Prof: Whip
-7HP. Magic Missile, Animate Rope is lvl 1 spell selection.
3)Male Human Paladin
-Followr of Imodae
-10Hp. Weapon Focus Longsword, Improved Initiative
4)Male Aasimar Cavalier
-Weapon Prof. Bastard Sword
-8HP. Lookout Teamwork Feat. Will fight from mount as often as able.
5)Female Catfolk Summoner
-Pounce Eidolon.
-5HP. Eidolon has 9.
6)Female Human Oracle
-Mystery Life. Channel Energy 5/Day
-7HP. Bless and Cure Light Wounds lvl 1 spells.

They have all purchased or started with mounts. From what I see is they lack another dedicated damage dealer and back up heals. One of the players yet to have chosen has thrown around a Wizard more focused on controlling the battle field. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. We are all really excited to start on this.

P.S. The players are doing really well coming up with back stories so I am encouraging this as much as possible. The Half Orc and Aasimar are half brothers. There mother had the Aasimar and had her longevity increased as she was a retired adventurer. Didn't raise the son. She was then raped and died during child birth having an Orc's baby.

[Errant Mercenary]

You're going to get an army suggesting that someone play a bard, so I'll be their vanguard.

Put a bard in there. Bards can come in many flavours too. The bigger the party is, the more awesome a bard is.
Also a rogue or vivisectionist can get a lot of flanking partners, making their sneak attacking easy to pull off and therefore a joy to play.

[submit2me]

Battlefield control wizard might not be ideal depending on the spell. There are a lot of people, and any area effects might mess up the party as well if not carefully executed. They could focus on summoning, but you already have a summoner and a lot of bodies. I think adding more bodies will slow things down. A blaster wizard might be good depending on what the sorcerer is doing.

Bard isn't a bad idea. In fact, it's great. You could also suggest an evangelist cleric instead. They get bardic performance, but with diminished channeling. They also get to spontaneously cast enchantment spells for some potential battlefield control. I can see some interesting back stories for this kind of character, too.

[darkwarriorkarg]

What's the campaign? A specific AP or hombrew adventures?
Echoing others:

Evangelist Cleric
Bard
Wizard - Item crafter theme, specializing in supporting the group and some battlefield control (conjuration and transmutation).
Rogue or archaeologist bard (sneaky with trapfinding)
Monk, could double team with the rogue. Monk Grapples opponent, rogue sneak attacks said opponent

You've got enough meat shields, plus the eventual Ranger Animal Companion and the Eidolon.

[Threeshades]

Yeah rogue and bard or also inquisitor seem to come to mind first, some sort of skill-monkey for dungeon and/or urban environments.
Beyond that pretty much everything is covered. You have a very solid core of melee fighters (cavalier, paladin and eidolon), and the sorc and oracle provide the primary casting needs. Although a cleric and wizard could expand the available selection of spells quite abit.

But really the party is pretty well rounded so make sure they dont take anything just because they feel they have to.

[Garkaun]

Thank you for all the advice. I think after much thought and conversation the final two players have narrowed it down. The one will be playing a Wizard with item creation and control as his main staples. The other is either going buff cleric or melee bard.

Thanks for all the input. Oh and to answer the question it will be homebrew adventures. The basic theme of the campaign is war, the World Wound, Runelords, Orc tribes of Belzkin, piracy and slavery. Basically all the bad stuff that can happen will. Or some such.

[Wind Chime]

Yer bard seems a good idea given how many melee pc their are, though actually I would recommend the evangelist they get all the nice inspire courage goodness but are also a full divine caster.

[Gerald]

I think a bard and witch would round out the group perfectly.