All of these posts contain something about WHAT actually makes the best party.

Here are just a few of my PERSONAL opinions.

The BEST CLASS all depends on what class YOU are.
You can basicly just give all the NPCS you get good items, such as.. Why be a mage when you can just get Edwin? A druid when you can just get Jaheira, Paladin when you can get Keldorn, Cleric when you can get Anomen, Multi's when you get Nalia and Aerie, Rangers when you get Minsc..
If you see where I am headed now, the only TRUE classes you can be that no other NPC holds is a monk, sorcerer, barbarian and so on.
So the only TRUE perfect party you can get is if you AREN'T the same class as another NPC![/list]
Feel free to post your opinions and flames.

Nope, because for instance I love being an Avenger druid and acording to your policy I shouldn't be one.

Avenger Druids are nice, but from what everyone else is saying, druids are horrible, and with Jaheira, why be a druid? Just passing along the INfo.

well what I did is I went here and then to the kits section. Then I downloaded the druid kit which gives Avenger druids
1. Shapechange Fire Elemental at level 14
2. Shapechange Mind Flayer at level 13

Jon I need some information on Custimizing, and from what I've seen from your site, your the one I need to talk to, do you have ICQ or MSN Messenger/

Not really. I mean, a sorcerer is nothing more than a mage in function, as is a barbarian compared to a fighter or kensai or even Minsc/ranger. All a class decides is to what degree a character can fight with melee or ranged weapons, or to what extent and type of spells can be cast i.e. supportive, offensive, or otherwise.

What you are basically saying is whichever class your main chars role follows will decide which NPC's are redundant, but redundancy doesn't necessarily mean uselessness to the team.

It depends on your style ( maybe you like two clerics on the team ), or if you're like me a balance between NPC personality AND skill is important. I mean, dont get me wrong, I'm sure Nalia IS in fact the second strongest mage NPC in the game. Does that mean I will use her? Nope. The reason is simple. She doesn't fit the star quality I want my team to maintain. It's alot like a movie and we can pick out the actors. She may be a good mage, but her acting/attitude ruin the immersiveness of the game, because as I play and have this drama playing out in my imagination, she just doesn't fit. So there really is no perfect party, all we can do is tap the experiences of others via this forum and make informed decisions on who to use and who to lose.

to Kore- ditto...

to everyone else- im a mage (necro) and what i need is
a cleric
a thief
2 fighters
and a bard or druid... thats all for me

what i did in the game was:
my main - necro
my theif- my own fighter/theif combo
my cleric- my own mage/cleric
my fighter- Misc
my support fighter- Jahera
my support mage/cleric- Aerie

thats all