This is what I'm going for, starting in BGI. My PC is a Fighter, Kensai in SoA.

Viconia > Viconia > Viconia
Edwin > Edwin > Edwin
Kagain > Korgan > Sarevok
Shar-teel > ??? > ???
Safana > ??? > ???

Shar-teel's slot I can do without, but I need a thief. Jan or Yoshimo might work, but Yoshimo disappears halfway through BGII, and either way they're both neutral. Would Imoen be a valid choice, even if she's good?

Imoen would maybe be a good choice. If you needed to RP it, the justification could be you're leading her along solely for her skills - you know you need them, and its just that's all you can do. I personally like Jan, and I think he's underrated. In ToB, he gets all the stuff you would want out of a thief (*nudge nudge*), and he's a very passable auxiliary spellcaster, as well as being a decent archer. He's a pretty good support party member, since you have the main areas (Fighter, Mage) already covered.

For the last slot I would consider three alternatives: Haer'Dalis, Anomen and Jaheira. Haer'Dalis gets insanely powerful later on in the game, but I would go with a cleric for the spells. I would go with Anomen, because cleric extras are more useful for this party makeup than Jaheira's. And remember to...try to mold Anomen's personality. ;)

Mods are your friends.

Jan doesn't care that you're evil. When he get accosted by that official guy and you're asked if he was selling stuff, you can just kill the guy. Jan will say something like "Wow, you're really evil". And then he'll ask to come.

Imoen isn't a problem either, she'd follow you anywhere, roleplaying wise she's easy to push around. I usually roleplay the Pc/Imoen relation as a big brother/little sister one. Imoen practically worship the PC, and the PC like being worshiped so he like having her around. She's Loyal too, which is more than could be said of some of the evil npcs in the game.

If you're evil Haer'Dalis keep complaining, and I think there was a time he left my party when I killed an innocent. I then had to kill him too, for good mesure. He's got the style, but he really isn't evil. Think of him as a male Aerie.

[ 01-25-2006, 08:08 AM: Message edited by: Luvian ]

Like I said: Mods are your friend...

Evil NPC's abound, with sidestories of their own! Unless you're against mods. Then I would recomend Jan. He will never leave. And his banter with Sarevok is funny too!

EDIT: Yes! 600th post! New Avatar Yeahea!

[ 01-25-2006, 11:00 AM: Message edited by: Kyrvias ]

The TOB npc has been named already in this thread.

dually noted. Time to edit again!

unless you want a full party in SoA for the banter how about:

Kaigan > Korgan > Korgan
Shar-teel > nobody > Sarevok

as an idea? i'm mainly thinking that you'll have a lot of investment in Korgan by the time you get to ToB

i'd also endorse Jan - apart from the obvious from being a thief/illusionist, he can get up to negative THACO with a crossbow quite quickly in SoA with the right equipment and his special ammo (flasher brusier mates) are far from a novelty item giving an area effect stun

[ 01-25-2006, 12:36 PM: Message edited by: Armen ]