[VhaalintheAssassin]

I've played the game with multiple combos, and am now using a mostly neutral and evil aligned party, this including Haer Daelis, Jan Jansen, Korgan, Cernd, Anomen (I made him kill in revenge of his sister to do something different, so he's not lawful good)), and my main character I created, Caramon, Priest of Talos. I swapped here and there, but eventually settled with the aforementioned, and actually got attached. I never kept Jan Jansen or Haer Daelis in the past, because I was never fond of either, esp. bards in general (and admittedly I was never fond of Minsc either--he's funny, but I just was never too impressed with his abilities, but I am going to keep him next time to stick it out and try something different). But now, Haer is kicking more butt than Korgan! I was jaw-dropped...I built up Haer's long sword abilities (becuz I found these two awesome longswords in some battles), and gave him these to wield, would cast Improved Haste on him, and--boom--he became this superfast, deadly fighter, doing more damage--and in less time--than Korgan. I love Korgan, so he'll always be my frontline tank (and Keldorn is great, too), but Haer was taking down tough opponents all by himself. This is the 1st time I've kept with Haer, so my suggestion is try various characters different from your past choices, and stick with them until they build up--have patience--and see what happens. I was surprised I kept some of the characters I did, because I never used to in the past. That's what I love about this game--the combos are endless and the replayability is great.