I've only ever played Ascension as an evil character so I was wondering who is better to take with you: Bodhi or Balthazar.

Bodhi was pretty useful in the fight against the Five as her level drain ability took care of both Balthazar and Abazigal and she even held her own against Yaga-Shura for a while.

When I play again, I'm going to try and recruit Balthazar but is he as effective as Bodhi at this stage in the game?

Well Bodhi as far as i am aware is just the same as she always was in SoA but she might be toned up in ability now, and Balthazar is just a normal Monk who has more lay on hands abilities and is immune to time stop, but treally it is difficult to compare similaritys since they have almost none if any.

It wasn't so much similarities I was after but how effective they're likely to be against the Five.

Bodhi was excellent for the reasons listed above and I would never have won the fight without her - which I know for a fact because I played it through half a dozen times without her and got slaughtered every time.

Is Balthazar as good? His main benefit would be immunity to Time Stop which is a spell that is crippling when cast by the likes of Melissan. Time Stop then Greater Whirlwind Attack with a +5 staff against a PC who can't even defend himself? Ouch!

I think Balthazar is alright. When I can't do anything because of Time Stop, I try to get him to attack the likes of Sendai and Abazigal. Not too easy to control him, though, he seems to have a will of his own. He also has some magical/innate ability something like Greater Malison and Glitterdust at the same time which he uses a lot. Which is good. He also heals himself, which is also good. I'm about to try Bodhi this time round, but I think Balthazar is definately useful against the Five.