Ok, just became a god with my sorcerer and now gonna try a theme party with all the super-do-gooders. I'll be an undead hunter, and take Keldorn, Minsc, Aerie, Mazzy and Anomen. Only problem is no thief. Should I try a go w/o a thief or drop Anomen for Nalia/Imoen?

IMO, thieves are just too nessassary in BG2 to go without one. Take Imoen or be a thief yourself. Nalia's abilities are inadaquate.

Go without! Thieves aren't do-gooders, even Nalia. They still steal! :p

You don't need a thief, period. Anyone of your characters can set off a trap and hardly even flinch, except Aerie. Take the damage, bust open the locks, and go on with it.

Eh, thieves are handy for traps and lock picking and pickpockets and whatnot, but not really necessary. Most of the traps are measly enough that you can endure, and any given lock is easily taken care of with a knock spell or enough brute strength. Besides, you almost never use level 2 spells, it's not like the selection there is crowded. If you're going for Imoen or Nalia, you're obviously not going to be doing any scouting or backstabbing with them either.

If you insist on a thief however, I'd rather go with being one yourself, i..e a kensai/thief or berserker/thief. Too much fun backstabbing the daylights out of everything.

And who says thieves can't be good natured? Haven't you ever heard of Robin Hood? :rolleyes:

Note the usage of the :p smilie after that statement geez. (My turn to rolleyes)

But seriously, why sacrifice a theme/idea just because you think you might need something that you really don't.

Trap locations>>>>
-Very few in Jon's dungeon
-Some Athkatla traps, however none really get in your way of solving major quests and most can be dealt with no problem
-No traps that I can remember in Druid Grove, Trademeet, Umar Hills, Astral Prison, shoot I don't even think Firkraag's Dungeon has traps. Temple Ruins has what one? On the wall in the lave pool room. Planar Sphere and Nalia's Keep aren't too bad.
-Spellhold? Only the one in an uneccessary hallway.
-Underdark? Inside a few of the Drow houses that's it.
-Suldanessalar and Hell, nope
-ToB gets more trap intensive than BG2 ever did, but by then, with all the hp and mass healing abilities, whoopty doo when it comes to traps.

I do tend to agree with you that, thieves be damned, unless you want to run around backstabbing as a thief yourself, don't bother.

Why would anybody want to have a six man party without a thief? If you're playing solo, then OK, but why complicate things when you don't have to?

Rather than being an undead hunter, you could be a wizard slayer. At higher levels, your magic resistance can take care of the traps (except for the level drain ones), and since wizard slayers are specially trained to fight evil wizards, you would still keep your idea. Just remember that wizard slayers aren't front-liners, but GM bow characters.