Six is definitely the classic party size for AD&D games, dating back to the glorious goldbox days. Being somewhat of a veteran of them, I tend to aim for an eventual six, but BG has such a wonderful variety of npcs to choose from that it is often constantly changing until I decide upon a new finishing combination. Like Lord, I'm a huge fan of interaction and banter between party members and so change my party each time I play through just to note the different behavioural relationships. [img]smile.gif[/img]
The first time I played BG I actually never used a mage at all - I think I had Ajantis, Branwen, PC Fighter, Jaheira and Imoen. But most games since then, I've always eventually had six party members and have included a mage. There are enough encounters and areas in the game to easily gather the experience and equipment required.
However, with creative roleplaying, you can practically get any combination of npcs to work for you. I'd argue this is the same for BG2.
P.S:
Oh...not to be pedantic as well, but its Kivan. K-I-V-A-N.
Cheers,
CD
[ 02-07-2007, 03:34 AM: Message edited by: CerebroDragon ]