This title is decieving, as everyone knows there is no "best party," except on a case-by-case basis.

Well, here are my criteria:

1) mostly Good aligned
2) no cheats needed to keep party together (I don't like "happy party" mods)
3) no 3rd party NPCs
4) I like banter, give me talkative people here
5) I really like Jaheira and Imoen. They're in automatically

So, any and all opinions are welcome here... pile 'em on!

My "ideal Good" party would look like this.

1. PC
2. Minsc
3. Jaheira
4. Keldorn/Valygar
5. Aerie
6. Imoen (before that, Nalia or Yoshimo)

Keldorn and Minsc have some funny interactions if you use Minsc's berserk ability ("Kill, says Boo! Kill, does Minsc!" being my favourite). Aerie and Minsc have the whole witch/dajemma routine, which is funnier still if Aerie gets killed and resurrected at any stage. Jaheira and/or Aerie have romances, Keldorn and Valygar banter a bit with Minsc and Imoen, and Yoshimo/Nalia have some good dialogue with the others as well. Prior to getting Imoen, you could include Edwin - when he screws up the Nether Scroll spell, the things the others have to say are hilarious (esp. Minsc and Jaheira).

For ToB, could drop Keldorn/Valygar for Sarevok to add some more banter and the redemption element. This party should have no trouble getting through and your PC can be of any class without disrupting party balance (although I'd suggest a warrior-type character - personal choice would be Stalker or Blade if you've got Keldorn, and a paladin or paladin kit if you have Valygar).

Just my $0.02

Aerie and Haer'Dalis have plenty of interaction. :)

Keldorn and Minsc are pretty interesting together, especially when Minsc goes berserk.

Jan Jansen is, well, always interesting if you can stand the long ramblings.

If you could skip Imoen and Jaheira those five would make for a very interesting and funny party.
If not, then Keldorn, Minsc and Jan would do pretty well together with Jaheira and Imoen.

Edited: I wrote this without having seen Non Sequitur's post.

I'm not far in at the mo. but I'm pretty happy with my team as they are. A few changes are gonna be made along the way like dumping Anomen (he's a pompous gimp in my opinion). My team is as follows:

1: Kraklok (PC, Half Orc Fighter/Cleric)
2: Minsc
3: Anomen (Soon to be changed for Keldorn)
4: Jaheira
5: Aerie (Wouldn't go anywhere without her!)
6: Yoshimo (Swapped for Imoen as soon as I can)

Like I said, They get along pretty well at the moment and I figure bringing in a paladin can only help matters.

Who are you romancing? Jaheira or Aerie?
And second: F/C is IMO a massive waste of exp. points - Ftr adds VERY little when put next to the slower progression of Divine magic.
Jan is good - he never fails to crack me up - and Yoshimo is a no-good.
If this is your second time through that you have yoshi in your party you'll know what I mean...
:borg:

... like dumping Anomen (he's a pompous gimp in my opinion).If he succeeds on his test his personality gets much better. Anomen is quite good, but if it's him or Keldorn it has to be Keldorn.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The rest of this post is kind of Off Topic!
F/C is IMO a massive waste of exp. points - Ftr adds VERY little when put next to the slower progression of Divine magic.
... Yoshimo is a no-good.Are you saying you think a single class cleric is better than a F/C?
Benefits for the F/C over the Cleric:
- Better THAC0. It stays roughly the same until F-14/C-14 after which the F/C will continue to improve THAC0 until 0 is reached, while the Cleric maxes out at THAC0 6.
- More attacks per round.
- Specialization.
- Fighter HLA's.
- More HP's.

The F/C will attain 7th level spells at a total of 2.7m xp, which is well before SoA is over, unless you skip most side quests.
The F/C will actually get access to Cleric HLA's before (150,000 xp earlier) the Cleric!

If you compare the F/C to a Fighter, then of course you lose all the cleric spells, so that comparison is not valid.

When you've decided to bring Imoen along, taking Yoshimo as the sixth character is a good option IMO.

First, I totally agree with Earl Grey, a fighter/cleric is WAY better than a single class of either type.

Secondly, I absolutely agree that you've got to dump Anomen. You already have more cleric/druid spells than you're even going to need. You will still have three people in your party that have divine magic ability (PC, Aerie, Jaheira). IMO, that's TOO many, and you aren't going to have much divine magic until you pick up Imoen.

As a half-orc I don't think you can romance Aerie or Jaheira. But regardless, I would recommend giving one of them the boot, and picking up either Jan or Nalia.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - to be good at this game, you need people who are skilled in combat (i.e. fighters, rangers, paladins, barbarians) and people who are skilled in arcane magic (i.e. mages and sorcerers). Every single character in your party should have at least one of those capabilities, as clerics, druids, and thieves are pretty much support characters. Your party as it is currently constituted is fine with fighting (you have 4 out of 6 characters that are at least half fighter), but you only have half a mage (Aerie).

You said you are definitely keeping Jaheira (good move by the way) and between her and the PC, you'll have all the druid and cleric spells you'll ever need. So my recommendation would be to ditch Aerie and pick up Nalia. Nalia is a full mage as opposed to half a mage like Aerie, and since you really aren't going to benefit from Aerie's cleric half, it makes sense to take a full mage with you instead of half a mage.

I feel we've been getting sidetracked here. Klorax asked about which, mainly good aligned, NPC's will provide the best interaction. So, we should probably stay clear of discussing which characters will be more or less powerful.

This was my interpretation so, Klorax, please correct me if I'm wrong!

Good point Grey. OK, from a purely interaction standpoint then (based on the initial post I'm assuming any combination that does not include an evil party member is OK by you).

1. PC (fighter/cleric works fine here)
2. Aerie
3. Haer-Dalis
4. Jan
5. Minsc
6. Yoshimo/Imoen at Chapter 4.

This works and is actually decently powerful. You have two tanks (PC and Minsc) who would stand in the front row. You have adequate healing (PC and Aerie). You have more than adequate theiving with Jan, so Imoen basically becomes a mage that can use a bow. And you have absolutely gobs of arcane magic (Aerie, Haer Dalis, Jan, Imoen).

Minsc interacts with Aerie in the witch/protector relationship.

Haer Dalis has a fling with Aerie

Jan interacts with everyone

And Imoen as your sister has some great interactions as well (and Yoshimo isn't too shabby in the meantime).

Gee, that a pretty interesting combination I've never tried. Something to consider.

My opinion is

PC (Fighter/Mage, Bard, perhaps even a Cavalier for double Paladin action, MALE ALWAYS)
Keldorn, since he is amazing.
Anomen, for the faster accelerating cleric
Jaheira, for the romance and happy goodness
Imoen, and Yoshimo before her
Minsc, because he is a good scout/fighter

Romance Jaheira, her romance acctually has fights, items, and XP involved

Get Imoen ASAP so you don't waste XP on Yoshimo

If you get chances for easy XP, kick out everyone but Jaheira and tell them to stay put. Get the XP, then have them rejoin. This is because once she hits level 14 or so with her Druid, she gets tons of new spell slots and stuff.

And make sure to prioritze certain people for certain high powered items

With Anomen yapping and whining you get a good amount of banter, especially if you argue with him and tell him to shut it. Aerie is the easiest romance, and talks to alot of people, but I have issues with her as an NPC, as she doesn't advance as fast as Imoen or Anomen...And her low Hit Points is bringing one of my games down right now...HaerDalis is great for banter, especially if Aerie is in the party and you romance her...Minsc isn't that great for banter, unless you have Aerie in the party...I think he also looks up to Sarevok in ToB...

If you were to abandon the "mostly good aligned" bit for banter:

1. PC (probably best as a CG spellcaster)
2. Keldorn
3. Minsc
4. Viconia
5. Edwin
6. Korgan

:D
Of course, your party will be constantly trying to kill eachother and eventually succeed at doing so, but isn't that half the fun?

... Minsc isn't that great for banter, unless you have Aerie in the partyMinsc also has plenty of banter with both Keldorn and Jan, although in Keldorn's case the banter is triggered by certain... ahm... situations.

Try this out ( Im doing it right now :) )

1. PC
2. Keldorn ( If your PC is Paladin, then use any Mage you like )
3. Imoen / Yoshimo ( for a short time )
4. Jaheira
5. Viconia / Anomen ( If you dont like the perverted nymphomanic girl... )

6. Minsc / ToB -> Sarevok

The point is two fighters ( 3 with Minsc/Sarevok) one T ( Imoen ) , One Cleric ( #5. ) and 1 or 2 M ( Imoen and some1 u like )

Thanks for all the help everybody!

I'd like to add on a little to this thread, as I think I've decided most of my NPCs:

I want Minsc, Jaheira, Jan, and Imoen.

I might want Sarevok, I'm not sure.

I don't know who else (if anybody) to add, and I also don't know what would be a good protagonist for this party.

A cleric of some sort comes to mind, but I don't know if going with a single-classed character is the way to go, or multi-classed. I'd really like to play a dwarf here, and if I go single classed, I will go with the Lathander or the Helm kit (not sure which)

You don't need anymore mages or thieves with Jan and Imoen in the party.

If you go with a single class character you should IMO take a class that you wouldn't be able to dual or multiclass anyway. Paladin or Monk would be my choice.

A cleric would be useful to round out the party since all you have in that way is Jaheira. If you choose to make a cleric I'd definitely make it a multiclass Fig/Cle.

Sarevok is a superb fighter, but if you want banter, you're much better off with an NPC who join in SoA.

With Minsc, Jaheira, Jan and Imoen in the party, i would take either Viconia ( unless your NPC is a Cleric ), or Keldorn ( Carsomyr :D :) )
Depends on what your PC is....

Then when ToB starts, kinck some Fighter type out of your party, and take Sarevok... :D :)