Yg is right Cerek. You create your entire party from scratch. It gives you a lot of flexibility in the type of party you can create and allows you to experiment a little. If it helps any, keep this in mind: although the stated xp cap in IWD is 1.8 million, its more likely that you will complete the game (even doing EVERY quest) with only about 1.1 or 1.2 million. So if you plan on dual classing give yourself a safety margin when you make the switch.