And with your main guy, the Fighter/Mage gnome:
- At Level 1, memorize Identify, and play him like he was a single-class Fighter, wearing armor, etc.
- At the end of each day, remove your armor and cast Identify on whatever loot needs identifying.
- Develop your spellbook and advance in level, and when you have a few more options available from your Mage side, remove the armor and function like a mult-class Fighter/Mage.

Neera is fine, no need to replace her with another mage. No need to decide now whether or not you want to dual Imoen, it will take some time for her to reach thief level 5-6.
Coran starts with pretty high lockpicking skill but with very low trap disarming, so specializing Imoen in traps instead of lockpicking is also an option, especially since traps are painful while locks can be bashed or opened with the knock spell.

Don't plan ahead too far, you can afford to spontaneously trade NPCs if you don't like them or want to try out something else.

The (mechanics based) strike against Neera would be the random chance that she ends up killing herself and/or the rest of the party with a bad wild surge. Of course, she also has a chance of wiping all the enemies or something. The decision on whether to take her depends on how much risk you are willing to accept, and whether you want to take Edwin (who, I believe, will end up fighting with her).

No one here is arguing against using Neera, just suggesting that you not take 4 mages in your party of 6 characters. Mages are poor weapon-based combatants, you may have trouble finding enough damage scrolls to pass around so everyone can learn something to cast for killing, and you'll be resting a LOT to replenish spells. Any of the mages are fine to take along, as long as you pay attention to alignment-reputation issues and which potential party members will come to blows with each other.

Edit: The bard is being counted as a mage in the "4 out of 6" above because he's an arcane caster and thus will need to use scrolls to learn new spells. He should be able to weapon-fight better than the actual mages.

Actually, Wild Mages are treated as specialist mages; they do get the same extra spell slot per spell level that other specialist gets. It's just that, instead of losing access to certain spells, there's instead a 5% chance that any spell a Wild Mage casts will surge and (usually) do something other than the intended effect. There's also some random variation in the caster level of Wild Mage spells; at low levels this is beneficial on average (because the caster level can't decrease below 1), while at high levels it tends to be detrimental (because most spells have their effect capped at a certain level).

If you do use Neera (or make your main character a Wild Mage) I recommend saving often just in case something bad happens. (Then again, it is a good idea to do this even without a Wild Mage in the party.) On the other hand, if a Wild Surge occurs and the result isn't truly disastrous, I recommend playing through the effect; you can get some interesting situations that way.

After realising that Yeslick and Coran are available so late ( act 4 cloakwoods ) i changed my party a bit, but im not 100% happy with that constelation ^^

Actualy im using:

PC Fighter/Illu dual wilding long swords.
Imeon ( no more dualing her i think, using short bow )
Khalid ( longbow ) will be changed to coran later on.
Kivan ( composite bow )
Neera
Jaheira ( will be changed so yeslick later on , i think its a great tank with good heal/support spells , but so late...)

Im not sure about Jaheira.. i used Branwen a bit: she got pretty low dex/con to tank the stuff but she got much more usefull spells then Jaheira.

Jaheira on the other side... she is not very usefull because she cant use proper weapons ( only that damn staffs... ) and no shields at all. But atleast she can take some hits and is able to heal.


IT is still worth to get a bard for my group? some faqs told me that bards are not that great anymore with the enhanced edition. Its worth to get them for fast tier 3 spells like fireball?

I suggest putting Khalid and/or maybe your PC up front with the heaviest armor they can wear and a shield (extra AC) for tanking duty. Put both up front early, kiting enemies as needed when hp on one of them gets low. You can drop it to a single tank for generic work later, after they've gotten some levels (make sure to have one or two people ready to step in front of other party members in case you get surrounded or something). I'd imagine Yeslick can step straight into an off-tank role once you acquire him; the biggest issue with Yeslick being a main tank is that if he gets hit while casting, he'll lose the (healing?) spell, and you want most enemies swinging at your main tank.

After your PC gets some levels (and necessary proficiencies for dual wielding), he can drop the shield for a second sword. Some spells can help make up for not using the shield.

Other than that, just keep in mind that Khalid and Jaheira are a pair. Unless one dies (or you mess around with area changes), they are going to leave at the same time. Plan accordingly when deciding to pick up Coran and Yeslick.

Jaheria vs Branwen: I seem to recall that both can use shields, single handed weapons (a few), and a sling. I wouldn't make either one a primary tank, though either could hold the line in a pinch to keep mooks off Imoen and Neera (or all your other fighters are too banged up to risk). Slap a 2h weapon and some decent armor on Kivan and have him step up before your cleric does; Kivan getting hit won't cause the cleric to lose a healing spell.

Ajantis or Kagain can easily tank for you in place of Khalid, with the choice depending on preference and how you manage your reputation.