I don't liek Yoshimo. I need a thief. He is useless in combat. Keeps getting level drained. And his hiding sucks and mine is awesome as an archer. His faux-asian accent grates on me.

Party is Valygar, Minsc, Jaheira, and Aerie.

Maybe Jan? He has magic too, no?

Other possibilities? I am only in Chap 2 so please don't spoil anything for me (about Imoen's return or demise. But she does whine an awful lot).

Jan, you can keep Yoshimo for now though... if you want to have a fuller storyline. ;)

I prefer Jan cause he is funnier and uses magic. It's your choice!

<font color=white>I suggest you pick Jan Jansen [img]smile.gif[/img] , because he is a good thief, he can cast spells and he has some very cool equipment :D .
(Yes all of that is true, but Jan really does TALK ALOT!)</font>

Jan is MUCH betetr!
He has both thief abilities and mage abilites...priceless if you use him as a ranged fighter [img]smile.gif[/img]

Take Jan, he's funny, useful, a good thief, can cast a decent amount of spells and is suitable for all reputations [img]smile.gif[/img]

My favorite is definately Jan too,imho the best thief in the game [img]smile.gif[/img] and i don't think yoshimo is a great asset to my party.

Yoshimo is the closest to pure thief an NPC can come in BG2. His battle skills is better than Jan's. Jan's Con/HP is horrible. Yoshimo's backtab is better. Jan's hide in shadow is worst than Yoshimo's. Jan cannot wear an armor if you want to use his mage spells.

HOWEVER, Jan's is a good secondary mage spell caster.
I think there is enough equipment and poition to increase any of thieving skills (rings, boots, capes, etc).

Yoshimo fits in the story line better.

IF you want Jan, I suggest to pick him up early since he is a thief/mage you will need a lot of XP to get him to higher leave where he is more efficient.

I do thinks Jan's native equipment is overrated by a mile. You can pick up a lot more bows that offer better damage and hit rate.

Yep. Jan is a good secondary mage.
He's also a fine thief that will handle all situations throughout SOA.

But it's true that his 'original' equipement is not that useful, esp. his weapon which I replaced with a Firetooth + 4 which, combined with Bracers of Archery, gave him a +8 ThacO (+6 crossbow, +2 Fire).

Very nice for disrupting opposing mages...

you can a;lso leave the classic foundations and make your NPCs whatever class you want by using shadowkeeper. if you want to pick up jan and then make him a pure theif if you want to. basically if u have shadowkeeper you can make anyone anything, just have fun with it. changing NPCs' classes can add months if not years onto the lifetime of your enjoying the game. just have fun!!!