[JR Jansen]

Well, the way i see it, every person you encounter that isn't in your party is an NPC, so people like Hrothgar are, to me, considered NPC's. As far as the NPC's who join your group in BG, they are not really NPC's to me. When you get control over them, they, imo, loose their NPC status. They are nothing more then non-player generated player characters. Granted they have some dialogue with each other and the protagonist during the game but for everything else you are controlling them. As for the best NPC, i would go for Sarevok when it comes down to pure fighting and Jan (big surprise there) when it comes to comic relief.