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Story so far:
Since my first days I was always very disciplined. I usually did as I was told so, the path old Gorion decided for me was the blade, or Ken as people from far away call it. I was training day and night, I dedicated my whole life to it. Then my master was killed and my soul was consumed by vengeance. My footsteps was red and countless enemies was slaughtered on my path for retribution. Then I realized its all for nothing, I felt that vengeance burnt my soul to dust, I felt no emotions, no reason, I was lost, dead inside.

So I started anew. For myself, empty-minded, living as a dog from one day to another. Instead of blade combat I was just swinging my fists, or stabing people in back, with no honor, no point, no satisfaction. I was brawling in pit-fights hoping someone will finally end my miserable life full of filth and darkness, but for some unknown reason I did survive. I felt cursed with life, which was a torture.

One day I found my old blade. She was just sitting on a tree stump in a forest where I was training when I was younger. I dont know why I went there and I dont know how she got there. But holding her in my hands refreshed all my memories. I was still pretty good with it.
Skip to here if you cant be arsed with reading story:
So here I am, dirty, dishonorable animal (Lawful Evil level 24 Kensai dualed to 28 Thief, something like Kikuchiyo from Seven Samurai) looking for new challenges, tougher than anything I experienced before (Tactics mod). I had a little taste of it before (I downloaded tougher dragons and such) and I know it will be my hardest challenge. Over the years of my life I got some experience and I went to some places (I have some buffs like tomes from BG1, LUM machine, couple of bhaal tears, so my stats are superhuman).
Now you know my story and now I need your help. I am to play from beginning the Tactics mod for the first time, but I had a little taste of it from some tweak mod or what. Anyway improved mages and improved priests seem to be dispelling all the time, so I want some non magical melee character, that can withstand even the hardest beating. I also have improved crafting (so I can craft celestial fury +5)

I had several ideas for non-magical defensive melee fighter:
Kensai Thief with Use any item, Dodge, Hardiness – I can wear good armor, shield and onehand Celestial Fury +5 so I can get alot of stuns (I dont really want to DW it, because then I get only half hits with it). I can self buff with scrolls when I really need to, so I am not totaly cut from magic.
Then I have spike and timetrap, assasination, backstab and my kensai damage bonuses, so I do alot of damage even with normal dagger.

Barbarian – if I get Hardiness, barbarian class reduction and Defender of Easterheaven, I can get to like 80% melee reduction. Maybe its worth? I didnt find a way how to upgrade Defender to better then +2 weapon and I am not sure if I want one character with half of his hits inefective. Still 80% reduction...

Swasbuckler / something – this was interesting idea untill I foundo ut AC is capped at -20.
??? Or maybe super-magical tank, so not all spells can get dispelled? Some sort of Fighter Mage Priest?

I will start a new game importing my naked Kensai / Thief. I am willing to make one or two custom characters, but otherwise I like NPCs like Krogan, Edwin, Viconia or whoever... I like their opinions and rants, I hate silent no-soul party like in Icewind Dale.
So my questions:
- Do anyone have experience with defensive barbarians in extreme situations? I want character that can step in front of improved demogorgon and stand his ground.
- What is best non-magical character, that can get incredible beating and survive?
- What in-game items should I focus on getting?
- Is magic really such a help for melee in Tactics and what party setup would YOU recommend (dont link anything, I want your opiniopn)
- What do I absolutely need to prevail in Tactics, I would hate to find myself stuck in hopeless situation after X hours of playing.

Dont spoil too much please if it can be awided (-: thanks.

Barbarian or Berserker because of the immunity abilities

Inquisitor is pretty sick too

Diary entry 1 – Acid Kensai:

Walking confidently in the city street, breathing fresh air, feeling strong. I was back. Met a couple of interesting fellows already – short tempered dwarf Korgan, egocentric conjurer Edwin and outcast priest Viconia. We get along well, as long as they channel their hate outside of party.

I was told that someone posses the blade of my former master, the Celestial Fury. I proclaimed myself a rightful heir to her, so we robbed and burned whole building. Those people gave us a hell of the fight, but potions, backstabs and running the stairs was enough in the end, although I had to resurrect whole party. Not long after that I was visited by mysterious man. His presence made my eyes crying like I was cutting a ton of onion. He told me that his hobby is collecting blades and so he wants Celestial Fury. Then he challenged me to fight to the death. I couldn’t decline and I knew that I am the only one from my party to have chance against him. Battle was long and hard, I was sneaking around and dispelling his illusions with my thief eyes, using traps, backstabs, potions, running back to Viconia for healing, but I just couldn’t kill him. He was the one that gave up in the end, but I knew I didn’t see him for last time.

We went outside city and I met many interesting people. Like this Valygar. He told me about some magical place full of treasures, I agreed to get him there and stabbed his spinal column with Celestial Fury right after he opened the door. He had nice personal armor, it would be shameful to wear it, but in my life so I learned how to make use of almost any item. Got daemon heart for stronger enchant of my blade.

Just as I got my sword stronger, my opponent came back and with him the havoc of acid clouds killing civilians in docks. Even with the strongest enchant Celestial Fury was not enough to pierce his magical defense. Edwin had a good idea, well, after all, he IS clever. He stepped into acid cloud and casted some minor spell. Coweled Enforces teleported in to teach him a lesson for casting unlicensed magic, got damaged and attacked the Kensai. Chaos of battle couldn’t be better. It was still not enough! After a while me and him found ourselves separated from others, one to one in final mortal combat. I couldn’t face him in fair sword combat, since I couldn’t pierce his protection from magic weapons. But this magic don’t last for long, he had to recast it over and over. I got myself some ground and hid in shadows behind corner. I ran to a stone fence, closed the door and kept waiting in the shadows. Now is time for my greatest ace in sleeve, time traps! When I left shadows, he sensed me immediately and rushed my location. I planted two traps on the ground and as soon as world went grey I used last of my energy for whirlwind attack to get rid of his stoneskin. Finally! Doing some damage! But in the split second of time between two timetraps he recasted this stupid protection from magic weapons. We all did hear tales of Kensai warriors that held their swords in iron grasp even days after their deaths. I am not one of them, I walk with shame. I threw Celestial Fury on ground and punched Acid Kensais face with my fists over and over. When time was running again, my opponent was laying on the ground, watching clouds in sky, thinking how could it end like this. I picked my blade again, went in shadows and as soon as his magic weakened, made his inners explode.

It's not a listed class combo, but I found an Avenger Druid dualed to Fighter at level 21 to be pretty powerful, especially if you're concerned with your buffs being dispelled. Even if you're in human-form, you can be dispel-resistant and weapon-immune via Ironskins (although the potion of Defense armor would be dispelled). Note that some of the stronger druid were forms can talk to NPCs, so there's little reason to become human. Potential Spoiler (black text): When a shapeshifted druid is dispelled he loses his paw-weapons, so can use any weapons, but keeps his AC, resistances, attacks per round, etc. It's a pretty lame exploit, but fun to try once. My end-game Avenger/Fighter had around 90% resistance to elemental damage, exceptional AC, and 5 attacks per round with Ixil's Spike (I think this is slightly more effective at stopping enemies than Celestial Fury, but only end-game, so maybe doesn't count). I don't think I even bothered with Whirlwind abilities, since Improved Haste capped my attacks. Instead I stored a bunch of FireSeeds in my ammo pouch and used GreaterDeathblow to bring down groups of annoying trash like mindflayers, demons, drow, etc. Always keep a Diva handy to dispel you if you become human.

Aside from that novelty class-combination, I found just about any warrior capable of using Foebane+5 is pretty powerful since a Whirlwind will heal you about 40 hitpoints while unleashing 10 attacks (the added magic damage isn't resisted by almost everything). It's hard to beat Celestial Fury early or mid game though .

Rangeer/Cleric is hard to beat. Get all the benefits of both classes, plus all the Druid spells.

Cheesy for sure, obviously you shouldn't get all the Druid spells.

Even without altering the game to allow you to use any weapon* there are plenty of weapons out there to choose from.

*The restrictions on clerics has always irked me, totally ridiculous, based on the assumption that no matter what god your character worshipped he/she was really a Christian!

You don't want to dualwield Celestial Fury because you only get half-hits then? Care to explain that?

Since the original poster is surely finished with this thread, I'll take a stab for explaining the half-hits: I think playing BG2 without patches resulted in a buggy dual-wield that would alternate the weapon being used rather than adding an extra attack (the record page erroneously showed an extra attack per round), but I think I read that one of the patches fixed that. I vividly recall when I applied that patch (it was one of the semi-official ones I think) and noticed that my fresh Kensai was dicing much better (successful attacks noticeably went from 1.5 to 2.5) than my previous experiences with them.

Also, I forgot to mention in my first post that while Foebane+5 is excellent, using Black Blade of Disaster with Whirlwind is surely the most damaging or effective attack in the game (very likely to drain 4-8 levels while healing you 20 or 40 HP, and it's the most damaging sword. Using Simulacrum with Time Stop and Mislead is a very effective way to bring down most difficult encounters while keep yourself out of the fight entirely).

Thanks for the clarification. I didn't know that. However, who still plays an umodded, unpatched BG nowadays?

Not sure at all about the explanation re DW and half attacks. Certainly I've never played an unpatched game, but have never experienced that problem. Extra attack has always been with the off-hand weapon, all others with the main in my experience.

PS I mean by that I've always played with the official patches, not unofficial. So if it was broken in the vanilla game that was certainly fixed with the official patch.