Thanks for the "speedy assisstance my friend(s)" (Anomen), I did not want to take Jan because I had him in my party for much of the game on the first time round.

My party was:

Nyladin (bard)
Minsc
Cernd
Anomen (failed knighthood)
Mazzy Fenton
and Jan but he a tendancy to die all the time which was quite annoying so I replaced him in Chapter 6 when I found Edwin.

He would be an ok replacement I suppose but he's so bad in close combat and his being an illusionist he can't cast a lot of good spells. Oh sorry to anyone who didn't know about Yoshimo I will write SPOILER next time.

My current party is for those who don't know is...

Natas (mage)
Minsc (dragon sword + shield)
Korgan (dual wielding +3 battle axes)
Anomen (with the war hammer that later becomes the crom fyer or Fail of Ages + good shield)
Keldorn (with that awesome +5 paladin sword or +3 bow)
Imoen (stuck with Yoshimo's stuff, she's got Celestial Fury right now I think)

I was wondering whether I'm the only person to have both of the Knights of the Order in my party (Keldorn and Anomen). I get the feeling Anomen is in awe a little.

I am planning to start with an Evil party soon... which will be

Me (Assassin)
Korgan
Jaheria
Viconica
Edwin

Who shall I have as the 6th person?? I'm unsure of an Assassin's theiving skills... I want a party of 6 (don't say Yoshimo) with no people of Good alignment. I've never had Haer'dalis in my party is he good?

Anyway must go now the real world beckons I am confined to play Baldur's Gate only after 12.00am which is fine considering my insomnia :/

No worries on the Yoshi' thing Parvini, easily done.

I'm fairly sure that Haer'dalis is good aligned and not evil. I think you've listed all the evil people and one neutral there, but I'm not 100% sure.

Minsc with a shield?!?!?!?!?!? Are you crazy!?!?

two profiency slots on two weaponstyle and two on two-haned sword, on mace etc.... give minsc a good two handed sword or flail of the ages and a good mace (and later crom fayr)

Try a human assassin thief. Spread out your initial skill points or you'll never get good enough to hide and therefore backstab. The backstab is extreme. Remember: You only get 15 points per level to increase your stats. If you have to leave one out, ignore moving silently and get a robe or boots to fix that. But hide in shadows cannot be ignored for this character.

Also note the poison weapon is a mage-killing machine. They can't cast with 1 point of poison per second. If you don't have Druid to cast Insect Plague (tremendous spell!) then the poison arrow is the next best thing.

At some point, probably level 10, you'll decide to dual or not. With your party, decide to dual to whatever you are lacking.

I acknowledge that for those who do not backstab, Swashbuckler is the way to go.

It never hurts to dual to fighter. That's the safest path.

bgp

There are no more evil NPC's, but the remaining neutral NPCs are (excluding Yoshimo):

Anomen (LN)
Cernd (TN)
Jan (CN)
Haer'Dalis (CN)

I'm guessing you probably want to use Haer'Dalis, as you've already used the other three. He's no that bad, despite what people say, but he can get very annoying with his 'better than thou' type attitude. The ability to cast mage spells also can be useful. Of course you could not use a sixth, but that is your choice.

I'm on my second time with an evil party right now. Haer'Dalis is a great addition to the party. I got him last, but he is already proving his worth. His ability to do offensive spin and defensive spin is awesome. Using Melodic Chain I have him down to -1 AC. I taught him Stoneskin too. I love not having to waste lvl 1 spell slots with Jan on indentify too, or paying cash to identify an object (something I hate to do).
So don't believe that he is no good, because I think it's safe to say all the NPC's are good, you just have to be smart about how you use them.
The rest of my evil party is
Nomar Chaodan (Berserker)
Viconia
Edwin
Jan
Korgan
and H'D of course

You could always create your own sixth member (there's a way to do this with multiplayer - do a search). Have your assassin as your protagonist, add a second character of your own creation (Lawful Evil Monk, Evil Elf Sorcerer, Half-Orc Barbarian - explore a class/kit not otherwise available through the given NPCs), and fill the remaining 4 slots with NPCs like Edwin.

I've given Minsc two profiency slots for Long Sword. That dragon shield is too good to waste and with Keldorn wielding the +5 paladin sword and Korgan with his immense stone and frost axes who else could use it? Anomen already has the shield of harmony. Minsc has an AC of -7 right now why would you waste him by using Flails and Maces? I see Minsc as a sword man... this is compouded in his dialogue with Korgan where they compliment each others choice of weapon (or is it Korgan and Keldorn who do that?) whatever