Melusine(love that name!), one of the great things about BG2 is the NPC interaction. The romances are excellent. If you played a female character, try playing with a male as they can have one of three romances, whereas only Anomen is available to female characters. The best NPC personalities are Edwin, Korgan, Jan and Viconia and since you mentioned in an earlier post you wanted to play an evil party, this would work well. Jaheira would be the other obvious choice, despite the fact you had her in your party last time. Not all NPCs have quests, Minsc doesn't for example. Also other quests are dull eg Keldorn visiting home and Cern's child. You don't need Valygar in your party for the planar sphere as his body lets you in. So for my money it has to be:

You

Korgan

Jan
Edwin

Jaheira

Viconia

I've finished the game once and now I've started over and I'm wondering:
the first time I had I very stable party in which I hardly switched NPCs
I used Minsc Jaheira Aerie Imoen and I had in my party for short periods of time only: HaerDelis Keldorn Nalia and Yoshimo

Now I'm beginning to think that I've probably missed an awful lot of side quests because I didn't take different NPCs and kept switching.

What do you guys think, is it better to try out all NPC even if that means I have to ditch Minsc and all other 'fixed' characters I played with and so totally change the group? I wouldn't want to miss any quests but the problem is, I like to have a fixed group of NPCs to play with so I can optimally use their abilities and collect the exact right equipment to fit them etc. Also it seems that when I pick up an NPC they are often somewhat lower in level

Well, I'm always trying to determine on a fixed set even before I start to play (well, apart from the first time obviously when I didn't know what NPCs to expect), thus being able to make a character to balance the other 5 out. Since there are 15 NPCs, this makes for 3 totally different rounds of play. Also, since the interactions between the NPCs are so complex, switching them around a little will make for even more variations. I occasionally pick one outsider up (Nalia, Korgan, Valygar) to be able to make their side quests, but I always ditch them later and go back to my original plan. The characters can go further in their scripts if you keep them a long time, you will grow to like them more and learn about their strength and weaknessessessesssseseses compared to the rest of the group, and, of course, they get more xp. So, if I wanna play with Imoen, I try to go to the Asylum as fast as it's possible, to make sure she doesn't miss too much.

A master at stating the obvious, aint I?

Heh, that's the exact same party I played through with first time round. Now I play through with only five or even four characters in my party, just so I can see what all those NPC sidequests are like. It's a little more challenging, but still quite fun. And I'm still using my original character, despite the fact that he's not levelling up anymore.

I play with five fixed players and then the sixth is usually a revolving door for sidequests. You won't get to play EVERY single sidequest but that's the great thing about it, it adds to replayability because all the interactions are different too. Play your second game with another set and find out.

Thanks an afwul lot everybody!!! Oh and Suul-Yinn, thanks for the compliment!(also check my thread on names!!!)