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Okay, so out of curiosity, what do people consider to be the Classic Adventuring Party? I'm not just thinking D&D here but it is the standard from which all are now compared.

I'm thinking this:
4 - 6 Characters.

Male Halfling Archer and/or Thief
Male Dwarf Warrior
Elf and/or Half-Elf Ranger (male or female or both)
Female Human Cleric
Male Human Warrior
Male Human Wizard

As above with possible variations. What do you think? Do you agree? What would be the 'stereotype party' in your eyes?

Tolkien's parties were a little character heavy.
The Hobbit: 1 Hobbit, 1 Wizard, 12 Dwarves (all male)
LotR: 4 Hobbits, 1 Dwarf, 1 Elf, 2 Human Warriors, 1 Wizard (all male)

Back in my D&D days no one wanted to be a hobbit/halfling. We had, typically, a dwarf, and lots of half elves, with the occasional human warrior or full elf. Someone was a thief, someone was magic user, and someone had to be a cleric to heal folks, but most folks were warriors or wanted to be warriors. Most folks thought being human was boring, so the half elf was the most popular choice to fit in most professions.

So I'd say,

A Dwarf with an axe (always male for some reason)
A half elf with a bow (male or female)
A half elf wizard (male or female)
A cleric (typically female)
A 'tall human' or half elf with a large sword

The basic unit you see in most movies or plays or spoofs - tho the wizard and cleric characters are often combined into one character, so that it's 4 characters - 3 guys and gal, an elf, a dwarf, and a big guy, with a female (elf or not, but something mysterious or exotic in her background) who handles anything requiring rituals, spells or prayers or reading long words, etc <g>

I will second M'Reen, especially in gender stereotypes. Another guess would be even more generic: a fighter, a rogue, a wizard and possibly a cleric to handle healing.

Having said that, my parties usually consist of several types of spellcasters, plus a melee type, either a monk or a ranger. We have even made do with rogues for the melee part...

My cousin's group has been running for years. At this point, the group is:

AD&D 2E
Human male Bard
Human male Mage
Human male Ranger

D&D 3E
Human male Bard
Human male Warlock
Human male Hexblade

If I play with them, I add a Thief/Rogue to the mix, generally a half-elf or dwarf male (much easier to sneak attack if you can see in the dark).

If my cousin's wife plays, there's a female elf wizard of shocking power and brutality (think Vaarsuvius during the soul splice incident).

Yes, what is it with female mages? In my current party we have two male and two female casters, the females are fire and brimstone death blasters while the males are a versatile sorcerer and a gentle healer. Pent up rage, perhaps?

I think it has to do with the old More Scottish Than Thou routine. Most of the female gamers I've seen are either wallfowers or completely nuts over blood, fire and death. And generally they start out the one and progress to the other.

Those who do find the balance point, however, are some of the best gamers I've ever seen. And even scarier than the "Death on Swift Wings" variety.

Well, the standard I always knew was based of the classic 'canned' modules. - 4-6 Characters (or more correctly 4 characters + 2 extras).

1xFighter
1xMage
1xCleric
1xThief

That way you had the classicial base classes covered. Hitting-Healing-Stealing and Exploding. They are pretty much the same even if the names and games change (Marine, Tech, Medic, Sabotuer / Ahroun, Philodox, Theurge, Ragabash / Solo, Netrunner, Doctor, Corpoate / etc).

If you had five or six you could play around with sub-classes - say a Ranger or Paladin, or prehaps a non core class (Monk, assassin, etc) to bolster the party strength.

And also it tended to be the size of the average gaming group. Two was too small, six or more was a headache for the DM (if you could even find and organise that many) and had a lot of internal friction. This problem can be seen in Tolkien type groupings where half the characters are one-hit-wonders (Hi! I'm Fred the Dwarf. Bye) who are more scenery than a character.

As for races and genders, it depends a lot on the game and the people. Some are happy to mix and match, others demand to be the same. For example at various conventions I noticed that in Cyberpunk I saw more 'Sexy Female Thief in a catsuit', where D&D tended more towards "Hunky devilish rogue in black and silver leather", and VtM saw very few female Nosferatu but lots of Toreador.

So I dont think Race/gender falls under the generic 'Classic Party' but more is D&D specific.

My list is somewhat similar to LC's, and is based on the general roles that a flexible and effective military team covers:

• Heavy-combat specialist (heavy defenses, big hand-to-hand attack)
• Ranged-combat specialist (hit them WAY before they can hit you)
• Support specialist (make the others more effective; usually has first aid or a healing ability)
• Melee-combat specialist (light defenses, smaller-yet-fast attacks making them able to engage multiple targets at once, stealth)
• Information gathering specialist (help avoids fights... or to find them!)

The problem is with the last role, which usually has nothing to do during an actual fight. This can be a problem in games where combat can take a while. In PnP DND, they decided to merge it with the Melee specialist and call the combination a Rogue. Other genres solve the problem with psionic powers ("Mentalists"), cyberspace control of robots("Deckers"), etc. to give the player in that role something to do.

I would point out that we do seem to have gender stereotypes.
For example,

• Supporting/Nurturing types (ie. Cleric) Female Ideals
• Heavy hitter types (ie. Fighter, Paladin, Dwarfs) Male Ideals
• Stealthy/Sneaky types (martial artists, rogues) Males (involves fighting as some point)
• Information types (chatty folk, poison users) Female (no fighting)

And, to actually answer the OP (after querying a few local PnP gamers):
Male Dwarf Warrior
Elf and/or Half-Elf Ranger (male or female or both)
Elven Mage (Male or Female)
Male (Half-Elf, Halfling, Human) Bard
Male (Halfling, Kender, Human) Thief
Male Gnome Illusionist
Female Human Cleric
Male Human Warrior
Male Human Wizard

Um.... I feel silly to ask this but... what's PnP?

Pen and Paper! As in pen and paper rpgs.

Also abbreviated TT, for TableTop.

As opposed to PBM, PBeM, PBP or PBC. (Play by Mail, E-Mail, Post and Chat, respectively).

There are a number of games and books where there are no dedicated "clerics," or other overtly relgious spellcasters, and that tends to alter the makeup of things a bit, I think.

The roles sort of boil down to:

The Bruiser - usually the big guy with the heavy weapon and armor. Typically a human fighter, but could be an Orc, Ogre or a small Giant, depending on the world in question. Sometimes the stereotypical axe-wielding Dwarf.
The Brain - Not always a magician, but commonly so. When not human, usually an Elf, or some other species known for magical ability.
The Face - Typically a rogue/trickster type. If not human, the Face comes from a species know for playfulness and tricksterism, such as Elves, Gnomes, Fae, et cetera. If the Brain and the Face are the same character, the combo becomes less about trickersterism than charisma and soft skills.

Sometimes, when the Brain and the Face are the same role a third character is the Leader. It's somewhat uncommon for the Bruiser (or the Leader) to be a woman - the lone female character will be either the Brain or the Face.

Think original Diablo - you had the Warrior (bruiser), the Sorcerer (brain) and the Rogue (face). For a Leader swap, Thundarr the Barbarian is an example. You have Thundarr as the Leader, Ookla as the Bruiser and Princess Ariel as the Brain/Face.