Who to choose!

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Currently, I just started the game and I decided to go with a Half-Orc Berserker and I have Minsc, Jaheira, Yoshimo, and Anomen in my party. I don't care too much for Jaheira and I like Anomen especially when he gets his bonus to his wisdom score later on. I was thinking of adding Edwin when I have the chance to. I was just wondering who else I should add in..Keldorn or Valygar..or should I get someone else?

 

i would pick up Edwin as you have no arcane spellcasters,not that you have to have one.

 

Edwin and Minsc don`t go well together, and will eventually fight to the death. I would suggest Nalia instead, since she is part of the Fighter-stronghold quest. Her alignment mixes well with your current party as well. You could try and replace Jaheira with Cernd, I suppose. He is a very good spellcaster, and when shapeshifted into a werewolv, he can hold his own in melee.

 

Valygar. Have him dual-wield Celestial Fury and Belm and he becomes a one man wrecking crew. I usually keep him in his own armour for SoA (the elemental and charm resistances on it make it worth keeping over the black dragon scale, which is only -1AC better) then get him the white dragon scale armour from Watcher's Keep in ToB.

Keldorn is actually a good character and is the only NPC who can wield Carsomyr, but both he and Anomen have poor dex, and there's only one pair of gauntlets of dexterity, so I'd advise taking Val instead this runthrough.

As far as mages go, Edwin is the best by far, but his alignment is awkward in most parties. After what must be well over 20 playthroughs now, I've taken Nalia for the very first time in my current game and actually, she's not at all bad. If you get the ring of wizardry from the Harpers then she has a reasonabe selection of spells.

You need to have Jaheira in party to get the harper quest (not Xzar's quest, but the one following it). Since I don't much care for her either, I usually do the following:

1) In Irenicus dungeon, open her cage and have her join party. Immediately dismiss her and she'll go wait at the Harper Hold. (If you just tell her to get lost, she will leave forever).
2) I normally go through SoA with only 5 characters so I don't have to drop anyone for Sarevok in ToB. (Sarevok is my favourite NPC, btw...plus he is seriously kickass). This leaves me a slot to pick up temorary characters like Korgan (for his tomb quest), Cernd (for his child quest), and then Jaheira (for the Harpers). If you want to play with 6, then just get these quests out of the way before you pick up Valygar, since he's not the easiest NPC to get right away.
3) After doing Xzar's quest and a few others, (the Harper fight is tough with a low level party so I usually do a few stronghold quests before tackling it), then pick up Jaheira. Meronia should come to her immediately and take her away. Rest at an inn (I'd avoid the Sea's Bounty unless you want to end up doing Jaheira's curse quest as well, since it triggers in there) and Jaheira will rejoin you on waking, and tell you to go to the Harper Hold.
4) Go there. Kill the Harpers and get the nice ring off the dead wizard. Sorted.
5) Dismiss Jaheira again.

Alternatively, download a mod NPC. If you want pure firepower, try Kelsey (sorcerer) or Xan (Enchanter, though there is an option in setup to make him a sorcerer, which I always take as Enchanters aren't too great, if you remember him in BG1). Both have their own quests, and Xan also has a friendship track (he only romances female elves, which you're not, obviously). Of the two I prefer Xan as he really has a LOT of content and will talk to even the most minor NPCs. Kelsey's neutral good and Xan is lawful neutral, so both would be fine in your party. Both can be downloaded from Pocketplane.net.