Ok, I don't know the game well enough to know which class isn't really covered by the NPC's. Now that my friend is buried into wanting to play so much. I know so far there's a paladin, mages, and hrm, one cleric I remember. What class can you pick where a NPC won't infringe on your ability or choice of weapons?

Monk. There are no NPC monks in the vanilla game and a monk uses a lot of different equipment to other characters.

Sorcerer. There are no NPC sorcerers in the vanilla game and you won't have to squabble with other wizards over scrolls.

Thief (pure / DC / MC). Useful NPC thieves are thin on the ground so any PC that is mostly Thief related will seldom be overlapped by NPCs.

Im not sure exactly what you're asking for because theres a variety of different ways to play any character class with regard to weapon/equipment choices but i think a Monk might be the best choice.

No need for weapons/armour/scrolls just a few magical items to give resistances/ac/hp/regenration which you should have plenty of in a team.

I really like monks, but I always make sure I have the oversight HLA's installed when I play one.

I like the multiclasses myself. Fighter/Thief (F/T) and Fighter/Mage (F/M) using the typical 2 weapon fighting style ***, katanas ** and long swords ** proficiency points. Depending on if you like Anomen, Jaheira, Viconia, Aerie or Cernd (or hate them as the case may be), a Ranger/Cleric (R/C) is very potent for tanking with *** in 2 weapon fighting, ** flails, ** war hammers ** maces.

Ranger / Cleric is potent, but is a bit of an overlap with Anomen or Jaheira. Fighter/Thief, I agree, is a good complement to the existing NPCs.

A lot of gamers hate Anomen and Jaheira and want neither in the party.

Fighter/Thief, I agree, is a good complement to the existing NPCs.A great compliment. The one problem with a F/T (unless he is barbarian or berserker dual class) is that he has no real defense against spells like imprisonment until he gets UAI. I hate reloading, so I only play classes that can somehow make themselves immune to imprisonment, be it spell immunity, special ability, or some type of spell deflection.

I never played with those Oversight HLA's before, the make the monk potentially unstoppable. I'll have to try one on my next run through.

@Drew
I know this is digging up another argument, but im certain a Barbarian does not get Immunity to Imprisonment. Its not in the description and ive lost my Barbs in fights with mages/demilichs before.

@kuemper
I'd agree that Anomen is a definte exclusion from the team but Jaheira can be quite potent. Mage diasabling spells, iron skins, summon fire elemental & the wonderfully cheesy nature's beauty.

@drew:
The problem doesn't affect a first time player, since he won't know when to protect against imprisonment before he got imprisoned. So he'll have to reload anyway.
If your PC is a mage you'll have 1 mage party member less if you want the same party balance.
And I don't recommend buying a freedom scroll and coming back when a party member is imprisoned.
There are too few enemies who use imprisonment to really bother about this anyway.

@Pseudospawn: Barbarian rage works correctly in my game (and, pending the release of the new fixpack, will work correctly in everyone else's game as well), so that's all I care about. :)