Yeah I never played tactics, I don't like being force to cheese through the game. I do play on insane though.
Item randomiser can be found
here, it takes most of the good items and distributes them randomly according to their level or usefulness. So for example, you won't find the coolest items (Vecna, girdles of strength, Celestial Fury etc) on low level bosses or merchants.
Regarding party composition, I've decided to heed your advide and keep Anomen for now. I want to at least complete his quest and get to read the Ano the Dung Orc dialogue. After that, I may just ditch him. My intention is to progressively lose party members and end up playing the final battle and ToB solo. Power corrupts, after all. I find this a more RPish way of playing a solo sorc and I see at least two advantages to it: I won't get forced to cheese at the start and I won't hit max level too quick and get bored.