In my current 'speed game' (
http://pub20.ezboard.com/fwanderonswarrensfrm12) I'm using
Jor, CG human fighter
Imoen--dualed to Conjurer
Xzar
Montaron
Kivan
Branwen
That's not especially offbeat, I realize; although near as I can tell most people tend not to use Xzar and Montaron. In any event, the game figures to feature increasingly unusual assortments of NPCs because the speed competition uses a 'no reload' rule. You also have to maintain a party of six, meaning that if a character dies you must resurrect or replace them forthwith. Those elements can lead to some very offbeat party compositions, and I'm looking forward to that. Although I have to say, I do like the strength of this particular party, and the fact that the roleplaying motivations of Branwen and Kivan are neatly woven into the story (in the speed competition we keep journals of our games and some, like myself, write them RP style--I find that almost as much fun as the game, I enjoy the roleplaying/storytelling).
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I had several Dark Side games going, now on hold, which were designed to use a) NPCs that I had either neglected or never even tried, or b) a custom party created around a concept. Those parties include:
Keldran--TN human male Sylvanic druid (husband of Elissyra)
Elyssra--NG half-elf female bard (wife of Keldran)
Safana
Xan
Yeslick
Quayle
They are in BG city and the druid seems very out of place there, but I really like the party compisition otherwise. I had never used Xan before, and I decided that I wanted to see if I could effectively equip him with his Moonblade. I have all the right gear and spells for him to melee with the Moonblade, but after all that he still only gets one weapons prof for that and will not accrue much by way of THACO and attacks per round (whereas a warrior class will, by comparison). So Xan will never be more than mediocre at best with that sword. I stopped having him use the Moonblade after I realized that. Personality-wise I had hoped he would be a bit more amusing than he is. I now intend to replace him with Tiax, whom I've never used before.
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Urmbel--TN male gnome cleric-illusionist
Imoen
Xzar
Montaron
Jaheira
Khalid
I don't really intend to finish this game. It's designed just to watch fights between NPCs thar are scripted to hate each other. So far Xzar and Montaron vs. Jaheira and Khalid hasn't taken place. (I've cleared several maps, completed the nashkel mines, even did Ice Island with them; so far just the caustic words back and forth). After that dustup finally does occur I'll move next the the Edwin vs. Minsc and Dynaheir conflict.
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Zhakhaal--LE human necromancer
Kagain
Viconia
Montaron
Eldoth
Yeslick
My 'evil' party, to which I now always add at least one good aligned NPC just to watch the interactions with the evil ones. An 'all evil' composition was actually pretty lackluster (originally I had Zhakhaal, Kagain, Viconia, Shar-Teel, Edwin, Montaron and they were surprisingly unappealing and boring, or so it seemed to me anyway). They just arrived at the big city. I will do Eldoth's quest with this group, which I have never done before. So I'll be replacing Monty with Skie. After enjoying Kagain's and Yeslick's bickering I'll probably replace Yeslick with Alora as the party's goody-goody. Then after that I may replace Alora with Ajantis.
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Ajhur Mazaras (protag)--NG human male Illusionist
Thanatos--LE human male Necromancer
Cassandra--LN female elven Enchanter
Gwyneth--TN female human Conjurer
Vyreks--LG half-elven cleric
Lorissa--CG female elven mage-thief
This specialist mage party was one hell of a good time early on--I almost literally felt scared taking them through the countryside at first. The concept for this party is to have them all rely on their own specialization school's spells. They are now around level 6 and have no trouble whatsoever with any run-of-the-mill encounter. I do enjoy combining their various spells during the battles, but this game won't get interesting again until they face some of the game's toughest opponents. I kind of lost interest in them by the time I got them to Cloakwood, but I was playing several parties at the time, and was burning out a bit with BG.
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Arthur--paladin, large sword
Lancelot--paladin, axe
Gawain--paladin, halberd
Bors--paladin, flail
Percival--LG half-elven (via Gatekeeper) cleric-thief
Merlin--NG human non-specialized mage
Arthurian knights concept, obviously. Beyond that, the knights melee only. They each specialize in the weapons types that tend to be ignored, eg, including spiked and polearm. This game was was great fun until I hit BG city and realized that LG paladins would not be walking into people's houses. I didn't particularly feel like finishing chapters 5-7 with this bunch. I may go back to it at some point, I guess. This in my very first DS game and the party got massively level drained in chapter 5--something you want to be spoiled about, believe me. There is no Restoration spell for vampiric level drain in DS (at least at this time; hopefully Team BG will revise that in the near future), which is a major drag.