Note: this information is intended for people playing the game for the first time and are planning to go with "pure" Warriors, Rogues, Wizards and Priests (preferably no multi-class and/or dual-class characters). Any "balanced" Baldur's Gate II party will have one Warrior (Barbarian, Fighter, Paladin or Ranger), one thief, one Wizard (Mage or Sorcerer), one Priest (Druid or Cleric), and then two characters of your choice. The Warrior is there for hand-to-hand combat, the thief will disable traps, unlock locks, scout and pick pockets, the Wizard will cast mostly offensive spells and the Priest will cast mostly defensive spells (especially healing ones). As for the other two characters, one good choice would be a Bard and the other choice could be another Fighter, Wizard or Priest. The Bard is useful for identifying magical items due to his or her high Lore ability. Other characters can idenfity items, but not as easily as the Bard can. Note that your party can consist of single-player NPCs or it can consist of custom characters of your choosing. If you want to have NPCs in your party, one important thing to keep in mind is their Alignment (good, neutral or evil). Mixing characters of different Alignments can cause problems, especially good and evil. The reason I am bringing up Alignment is because if you choose to have a party of that consists of NPCs who are all of the same Alignment, there can be party balance issues. For example, if you choose to have all Good guys in your party, these are your choices: Aerie (Cleric/Mage) Imoen (Mage/Thief) Keldorn Firecam (Paladin (Inquisitor)) Mazzy Fentan (Fighter) Minsc (Ranger) Nalia (Mage/Thief) Valygar (Ranger) You have a plain Fighter at your disposal, however you will not have a pure Thief, Mage or Cleric in your party. It is certainly possible to play with a party that contains multi and/or dual-class characters, however they will not give you the full benefits of playing with "pure" characters who are not restricted in certain ways, such as how high level they can get with one class. So, if you choose to play with all Good guys, you have to consider that you can only have two of the "pure" character classes that make up a "balanced" party (your character can be a pure one). If your character is not a "pure" Mage or Sorcerer, you can bring along Edwin Odesseiron (an evil Conjurer; a Conjurer is a Specialist Mage), but being the Evil person that he is, there can be some potential conflicts between him and the Good people in your party. The Alignment conflicts in the game make it more interesting and help you get to know the NPCs in your party better, however they can be disruptive if you're only interested in seeing the progression of the main storyline and want to see how the game ends. An alternative to using the pre-made NPCs and avoiding balance and Alignment issues is to create a multiplayer game where you are the only player and you control all six characters in your party. You will miss out on some side-quests, dialogue and character interactions, however you will have full control over your characters' stats and abilities. If you find the game difficult, using a custom party can make it easier since you don't have to adapt to the NPCs' shortcomings and you can create a more balanced team. It is not necessary to beat the game with any of the NPCs in your party, and there are no differences in the main game content (aside from what I mentioned earlier) between single-player and multi-player. To sum up, a "good, basic mix" of characters will include a Warrior-type character for hand-to-hand combat, a thief for scouting, pocket-picking, lock-picking and trap-disabling, a Wizard for mostly offensive spellcasting and a Priest for mostly defensive spellcasting. The other two character choices are up to you; keep in mind that having a Bard is very useful for identifying the many magical items you will find during your adventure. Also note that there are some basic differences between the sub-classes of the Warrior, Wizard and Priest classes; keep them in mind when creating your party.