True, dat.

I'd be careful about calling Dynaheir his 'mistress'.... pretty sure Minsc wouldn't take to kindly to that XD It's just too bad in BG2 that you can't form a full evil party =( and thus limits your diversity I did mostly the same thing.... but I had spots in my party open up once certain people couldn't get along anymore haha

My current Play thru Me fighter Minsc, Kivan, Brawen, Imeon, and Dynaheir

Last time I did Minsc, Imoen, Jaheira, Khalid and Viconia. I "accidentally" got Dynaheir killed (I never liked her much, I'm glad BG2 didn't have her).

I actually regret not doing the canon party... I wonder how much flavor Minsc + Dynaheir would have added to the part. I played vanilla, and banter was scarce as it is.

I did:
Imoen
Khalid
Jaheira
Minsc
Yeslik (yes, Yeslik)

I dunno, I just like dwarves, I think Yeslik added a sorta grandfatherly flavor to the party. Like I said, though, I'm sorry I didn't use Dynaheir.

CONFESSION: I only actually did a full playthrough once.

In my EVIL playthrough, which I never finished, it was Montaron, Kaigan, Edwin, Viconia, and Shar Teel. Tiax was awesome and I would've eventually traded Montaron out for him.

If/when I actually get BG1 from GoG (gonna wait and see if they add BG2), I'm gonna do a Wild Mage, and I'll play around with some of the less popular NPCs.

Oh, and for my original playthrough did large portions of the game with Kivan and Xan too, and I have a soft spot for both of them. Xan especially.

The Baldur's Gate games are VERY good-alignment biased. My currently playthrough with my Lawful Evil gnome Cl/Il is proving to be quite impossible to RP at all. I wanted to play a politician or con man type: good reputation, but always looking out for himself in the end. This doesn't work at all with the binary good/evil reputation scale they have, so I pretty much gave up on it. This is a failing with the genre (or, at least, all Bioware games with a reputation score), really, not just with the BG series. I've done that with Dynaheir. A lot. I just don't like her that much. I think I would choose ANY other NPC over her, even two Jaheiras! In one playthrough, I got both Khalid and Dynaheir killed off almost immediately after joining them. I think I replaced them with Garrick and Yeslick (eventually), but I can remember.

IWD's portraits ARE stock fantasy - the party is nothing but empty shells, and you have to provide all of the personality yourself. I don't mind doing that for CHARNAME or the Nameless One, but for a whole party of six? I don't think so.

Anyways, my first party (and my current standard) is the canon party from BG2. That said, I've been known to use Ajantis, Branwen, Coran, Kivan, Yeslick, and even Viconia in my good-aligned parties on occasion. I've never been able to play an evil character in either game, as not only do you get fewer rewards, but I simply feel like a d*** for playing that way. My BG2 party moves around between games; all of the good and neutral characters get a turn, but my standards are usually Minsc, Keldorn, Anomen, Yoshimo, Imoen, and Aerie, with Minsc being replaced by the ToB-exclusive character once I hit that point.

I believe "mistress" also means "female master". LOL I use this word because I forgot her name. BTW which thief is good for Dulag's Tower? I'm soloing with a paladin but it's impossible to go through Dulag's Tower without a thief.

Any of the thieves should be fine for Durlag's tower. Just get their Disarm Traps and Lockpicking skills to 75+ if possible. I think Safana may start out with some decent scores there, but I am not positive. I usually get my thief to 100 in each of those, and they never need to use a potion, but since there are tons of Potions of Mastery Thievery to be found in Durlag's tower, 60+ should be fine for Picklocks. Disarm traps is the tough one to get high on a new NPC.

EDIT:
**Minor NPC Spoilers below**

Safana starts at level 2 with 50% picklocks and 25% disarm traps.
Alora starts at level 6 with 100% picklocks and 20% disarm traps.

I am not sure what level you are or what level they will join you at, however those are the 'base' stats.

I could never stand Alora - she's FAR too chipper and annoying for my tastes, and she's so far into the game that I've already got a thief with good enough stats in my party. But yeah, I usually hit 100 on both Detect Traps and Open Locks, then work on Stealth (in vanilla BG) or Set Traps (in Tutu and BG2). I never backstab, and I don't see any use to Pick Pockets unless you have to get EVERY item out of the populace.

Edit: I forgot that Pickpocket is also used to steal from stores, but at the same time, anything truly worth stealing (at least IMO) require such a high score that it's ridiculous.

Pickpocket is useful for obtaining a certain cloak from one person and for re-obtaining a certain book from another person. That's about it. That said, I usually give Imoen 100 in pickpocket too (unless I dual-class her to mage), just for shiggles.

OoOo Ooo. Cloaks and book loot? I bet its a stat book.

This might justify another playthrough with a pickpocketing thief...

Montaron-My favorite npc. Bloodthirsty, ruthless, and sadistic, Must have for this party.
Sharteel-She is a sexist who hates men and loves killing people. And for that craziness, she is needed.
Xzar-He is insane and has some funny catch phrases. Decent mage too.
Me (Swashbuckler Archer) True Neutral alignment that has my character sitting on the fence. I use the swashbuckler for the fact that it grants points to ac, damage and to hit with any weapon. I sneak around and snipe people with my crossbow.

Bah. Drop Xzar for Edwin, and grab Viconia and Kagain - Edwin and Viccy are the best pure mage and cleric in the game respectively, and Kagain is incredibly tough due to having 20 Con.

Edwin is good but i just cant bring myself to getting rid of xzar (hes funny and hes got good dex) Edwin may have high constitution and good spells but the one thing i never liked was his dexterity is really bad. Dex is even more important for a mage since you want to avoid getting hit completely. Now you could offset this with gauntlets of dexterity but i like to use them on my fighters making them even better.

Ive used kagain and he is very annoying (his soundset) and for someone with 20 constitution he paniced a lot when i had him which is almost unheard of for a dwarf. Whenever he got to somewhat low health he started running away.

Viconia, out of the three you mentioned, is a possible candidate. Shes an
evil drow, which is cool. And her soundset is cool too along with her stats. All she needs to be perfect is the gauntlets of ogre strength. The only problem is i wish i could just get rid of xzar and keep montaron. I like xzar for roleplayiong purposes since he talks alot with monty. Its a tough choice and i especially hate mages in these games because they are too fragile. I prefer using bards as they can at least take a hit.