(Small spoiler for Durlag's Tower)

I decided to return to my old game where I was using the 5 illusionary NPCs from the Candlekeep training room, and just to add a little spice to Chapter 3 we went exploring in Durlag's Tower. Now we have reached the Chess Match and I was wondering what is the allocation method when placing the NPCs on the chessboard. The main character has to be the King, but what about the others ? My Mage became the Queen, my best Fighter is a Knight while my Cleric is a Bishop - this looks pretty normal. But for some reason Deder the Fighter/Thief is a Bishop, while Osprey (C/M) is made into a Knight - is this some kind of joke? She would die of fright if an enemy came too close.

So tell me, in your experience is their a logical pattern to the allocations and what is it based on ?

PS. In the new RPG "Dungeon Siege" you can chose to take a Pack-Mule as one of your characters. It can carry lots of your spare gear, but it has low Dexterity, Wisdom and Intelligence and is useless in a fight - but I've already got Osprey (lol) !!

IIRC the placement is simply based on the characters placement within the group

I had hoped there was some smarter system than just formation order, at least for my last party it didn't fit like that. In formation order when placed onto the chess-board they read across as 6 : 2 : 3(protagonist) : 5 : 4 : 1.
I also looked at the save game file which I think goes by order of recruitment, but this gave 5 : 4 : 1 : 2 : 3 : 6 which is better but not quite right either.

If I had a saved game I might experiment a bit more but I over-wrote the save from before this area. Maybe next time!

wow is it anything like the scene from Harry potter? LOL
i am heading back to durlags tower real soon..

It is exactly like that, lol. ;) I love the Chess Game at Durlags, and always rearrange my party so it makes sense. :D