Best companion for bard protagonist

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Help, I'm at lost! Help me build my party from scratch. I'm at beginning of ch2 and I'm neutral good skald. Which companion to take, in order to play "good-aligned" playthrough.

 

While the skald does get a minor boost to their battle capabilities in the form of a +1 to hit and damage rolls, it's real strength lies in the unique skald song, which gives the following bonuses :

At level 1, it gives allies -2 Thac0, +2 damage, and -2 Armor Class.
This increases to -4 THAC0, +4 damage, -4 AC, at level 15, adding immunity to fear as well.
At level 20, it adds immunity to stun, and confusion on top of that.

One warning as a preface, though you shouldn't be at a point where you get to pick HLA's : Do not pick the improved bard song hla when playing a skald, it will overwrite your unique song forever.

The thing is, that as long as you are singing, you cannot attack yourself, making the bonus to hit and damage roles slightly less useful - at least until you get access to the mislead spell, allowing you to create a clone that can sing for you, while you can still attack/cast spells on your 'real' bard.
some fix packs like the BG2 Tweaks Anthology treat this as cheese/an exploit and contain a component that will actually stop mislead clones from singing if you enable it. If you want to use this tactic, make sure you don't have that component installed.

Also, your bard songs will benefit allies that do their damage via mundane means the most - weapon attacks will always get the bonus from your bard song a 100% of the time as long as your allies are in it's range, while not all spells have a to hit or even damage rolls, so spellcasters will not reap much of the benefit.
Seeing as how the skald already can cast spells whenever she is not singing, i would only take along 1 other pure spellcaster, to account for the fact that bards do not have full spell progression, and will never get access to 7th level or higher spells.

I'd also take along one of the pure clerics, since they are perfectly suited to be in melee as off-tanks, while also adding divine spellcasting to your repertoire.
Finally, though bards get the pickpocket thief skill, they really arn't that good at it even compared to a regular bard. On top of that, i've always found it a great help to have access to the thieving skills, most importantly find traps and lockpicking.
The actual composition of the party really depends on your preference, and somewhat comes down to taking along companions who do not conflict with eachother. (i.e. no minsc+edwin in the same party.)

Sticking to the above as a general theme, my ideal party would be :

1. Your Skald. - for obvious reasons, can't play the game without him/her.
2. Jan Jansen. - this fills both requirements of having a spellcaster that gets access to 7th level and higher spells, as well as someone with thieving skills to open doors and disarm traps - saving you 1 spot for another fighter type, instead of taking along a mage and thief seperately. Whenever he is not casting spells his crossbow attacks will get the full benefit of your bard song as well.
3. Viconia or Anomen. - depends on your personal likes to be honest, Viconia starts with great stats right out of the gate, but Anomen can have even better stats if you complete his personal quest and give him the gauntlets of dexterity. Personally i like Viconia's personality a lot better, and the gauntlets of dexterity do a lot more for Keldorn - so i would take her. Keep in mind you can change Viconia's alignment through her romance if you so desire, so both characters can do well in a 'good' aligned party.
4. Keldorn Firecam. - not as great as other npc's right out of the box, but hook him up with the gauntlets of dexterity and a belt of giant strength, and he becomes a beast. your song's bonuses will help him a lot until you manage to pick those two items up, and once you put the holy avenger on him, your buffs will alow hi to be one of your parties hardest hitters.
5. Mazzy. - She is just great - she gets grandmastery in any weapon you desire since she is a pure fighter, and she also gets two awesome innate abilities - one of them grants her 18/00 strength that lasts for 1 turn/level, and she is also able to haste herself twice a day, doubling her attacks. This ensure she hits hard and a lot, making the most out of your skald song buffs.
6. Haer'dalis. - If you don't mind the competition, havign a second bard along for the ride is just great - and his blade kit ensures your roles won't conflict at all, in fact the skald and blade synergise in the most amazing way. With his offensive spin, all his damage rolls are maximized for the duration, but he still needs to hit to actually deliver the damage, meaning your +to hit bonus is a huge deal. he gains an additional attack when in his offensive spin, and can also haste himself, allowing him to dish out more attacks, capitalizing on your songs bonus' even more.

 

Pretty much any NPC works for the Skald class-wise. Besides the specific suggestions above, to make the most out of your Skald you must take steps to maximize party attacks per round (APR). As explained by xosmi, the reason for this is because the Skald's unique song buffs each normal weapon attack each of your party mates (and summoned creatures) makes per round.

Knowing which spells/skills/gear to pick for your allies is important.
For example:
-Melf's Minute Meteors (gives your mages/bards 5 APR)
-Haste and Improved Haste (improves the APR of allies)
-summon creature spells (allows your mages/clerics/druids to artificially increase party APR)
-weapons like Belm, Tuigan, Scarlet or throwing darts (increases the user's APR)
-HLAs like Whirlwind/Greater Whirlwind for fighter-types and Energy Blades for caster-types gives (sets their APR to 9-10)

 

Sarveok l8r in the gae

 

Skald
Keldorn or Minsc
Aerie
Nalia/Imeon
Mazzy or Saerileth
Anomen or Jaheria