First SOA + TOB playthrough help needed (party)

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Hello.

This might be a little lengthy for a help request, but here goes. Situation is, that during the time i completed the Unseeing Eye quest and received my stronghold I noticed that I've screwed up during character creation and picked Lawful Evil alignment instead of True neutral for my half-elf cleric/mage. Though instead of replaying everything I've decided to continue playing as evil. Tough choice.

Now I am facing a problem of replacing one party member which doesn't fit and I am not sure whom to replace her with: Mazzy. For my original plan I expected to turn her into a two-hander wielding frontliner at later parts (halberds and 2h swords for damage type difference), but she's lawful good AND worships Arvoreen, which makes her slightly less annoying than all the Helm dorks but still unwelcome. So, my full party is atm is:

PC - Half-Elf Lawful Evil cleric/mage (Buffs, debuffs, CC, summoning)
Korgan (dual wielding axes, main tank. Might get a Crom offhand once i figure out how to assemble it )
Mazzy (Shortbows and Halberds...)
Yoshimo (Trap setting / backstabbing/Scout)
Edwin ( Oh, you know...)
Jaheira (Barkskins, Insects, Elementals. Slings)

So what I am thinking is to have Jaheira dual-wield (belm offhand, once/if i find it) + ironskins and turn her to a tank. With this I can safely dump Mazzy and have Yoshimo (and later Imoen) on a quiver duty.

And here's where help is neeed. Who should I get into my party? I am thinking 3 possible choices here...

1) Viconia. She was awesome in BG1. Evil, and also a cleric. Question comes down to how well I can do without Jaheira casting in combat once she starts the tank duty.
2) Valygar. Good, but at least not a paladin. It's a choice if I don't feel lacking divine spells in combat.
3) Run a 5 people party.

For the last thing I think i should give my mods list just in case:

Spell Revisions mod, Unfinished Business, Banter Pack, BG2 Fixpack and Item Upgrades mod.

Any advice is welcome, Vets.

 

You already have two divine casters, and if you really need more healing just have Jaheira memorize Call Woodland Beings. Each casting summons a wood nymph with an AoE heal and lots of enchantment spells. You will have 2 full mages as well as a decent thief when you get Imoen back so arcane magic/thieving is covered. You have 4 people with summoning spells so calling in reinforcements to help Korgan manage the frontline should not be a problem. You will have 3 people with haste and lots of debuff/nuke spells.
I think all you really need now is another hard-hitting character. Sarevok, definitely, once you reach ToB. Until then I recommend playing as a 5-member team - earlier HLAs, more levels for your multiclass PC and Jaheira. You can use the 6th slot to hire NPCs temporarily just so you can do their sidequests.

 

Adding another character is never harmful. Go with six. I would add Viccy to keep in line with the mostly evil theme. Or take Anomen and lead him down the bad boy path to turn him CN. Or Jan. His comments alone are entertainment enough. Or Haer'Daelis, he can become very powerful. Another Fireball/Skull Trap/Cloudkill won't hurt either. Plus you get more XP when memorizing scrolls. The more mage-types, the more XP. I also think with Cernd as a Shapeshifter that a Werewolf fits in line with the Evil party, regardless of his TN alignment.

Mazzy has great dialogues with Korgan and Jan btw....

 

I'd go with Paracelsi on this. Just keep the 6th spot open and rotate other NPCs around for their quests and some of their banter. Sarevok would be a great addition once you get to ToB. I love his Deathbringer assault

 

And so I did. Thank you all