[Gimli]

Well it's true, your Mook will get sidelined for 8 hours of game (not real) time, but I just rest then so it's no big deal. They are really good rangers and can use the only extended range sword in the game, and you're guaranteed to find one (probably will find more like 4 of them!). Str/Dex are the best things to go for first with this kind of ranger, and let him train in melee (sword) and with the bow.

Humans and Elves can be good rangers too, had an Elf who I tried to make a potent Alchemist as well as with a bow, skimped on melee with her and she was really good as a ranged character.

If it's your first time through the game then you want at least one Ranger for auto-scout, that's invaluable. Bishops are great but harder to develop than the pure casters, so you might want to take 2 pure csters, like say a Mage and Priest. 2 Bishops is a pretty awesome combo, if you have each one take 2 schools you can cover all four that way and they're not too bad to develop.

Also a Bard is a really good choice, they can take care of your thief duties, are pretty good in melee and have music for spells - they're really handy early on especially.

But go for more of a team thing, every character you choose should have a role and they should fit in well with each other, don't worry so much about a lead type, make the party strong.