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I have been through Baldurs Gate twice before, ages and ages ago, butr fanicied doing it again before its descendent Never Winter Nights is released.

Trouble is, i have forgotten who are the best NPC's. Looking at the descriptions on this site shows that none of them are that good.

Can you tell me why these characters are not very good stat wise (compared to npc's in BGII)?

Also who is the best:

Cleric/Druid?
Fighter/Paladin/Fighter?
Wizard?
Thief?

NPC i enjoy having on my party are: Jaheira(fighter/druid), Viconia(cleric), Imoen(thief/dual to mage), Xzar or Edwin(wizards), and the rest whatever or rotating between NPC's.
But it all depends on or style of game, alignment(if you choose to roleplay), and well, it's up to you.

About you other question, druid or cleric, well they both are good. clerics also turn undead and ware all armors, druids have some very nice spells.
And rest well, all classes are good. Just try to balance you team out.

There isn't a single "bad" party NPC in the game. Some are simply a bit more challenging to play, and that's part of the fun. Trying to get only the "best" characters is a good way, IMO, to leech the enjoyment out of BG1.

Like Onyx already pointed out, many things affect on who are the best NPC's for your game.

Some NPC's cannot stand each other (like Jaheira & Xzar for example), so you have to take that into consideration, too. But those conlifcts between NPC's make the game more vivid and "real". Also, some NPC's refuse to be separated (Minsc+Dynaheir, Khalid+Jaheira, Xzar+Montaron) which also influences on the choosing the party. You'll have to weight their pros and cons carefully.

I've usually play as good aligned character, which influences my party. Here's my usual choices for different roles.

Killing mahcines:
IMO ranged weapons work really well in BG. Coran, with dexterity of 20 and proficiency with bows, is really good archer. Though you'll get him only in the 5th chapter (?!? I guess), so you'll might want to have Kivan before him. Fortunately there's two good bows in the game so I usually end up having both in my party.
Tank:
Ajantis makes a good tank if you give him gauntlets of dexterity. Khalid could become great swordsman with advanced weapon proficiency, but his lack in strength can be compensated only after you reach Baldur's Gate. Minsc won't lack strenght, but pretty much all the other stats. Especially his lack in Int. shows in the way he talks with his pet rodent (which of course gives him tons of personality)
Wizard:
Dynaheir has intelligence 17 so I'll usually choose her. That and because of the fact that other mages early in the game are either evil (Xzar, Edwin) or annoying (Xan)
Healer:
Jaheira early in the game, though later there's options (for example Yeslick). Jaheira would be good all-around-character, but it's hard to find a good weapon for her.
Thief:
Often my PC is thief (or fighter/thief), so I don't usually need another. But if i'm not thief myself, I have Imoen by my side. After all, we have long history together, and she can always be trusted

Originally posted by Lelio

Also who is the best:

Cleric/Druid?
Fighter/Paladin/Fighter?
Wizard?
Thief?

Cleric: Since I am playing in multiplayer mode, I created my own cleric, mostly because I can change the sound scripts (my cleric is currently using a Buffy sound script, but sometimes I have her use Duke Nukem, which is hilarious). If I didn't do this, though, I would have gone with Viconia because she is interesting to play, is a good cleric, and has 50% magic resistance.

Fighter: I always have Minsc and I typically use Ajantis because I like to melee and therefore like having a couple of tanks in front, along with my character. I hear Kagain is also a good choice, but I have never played an evil-aligned party.

Wizard: Since I am playing a good aligned party, I chose Dynaheir initially. But over time I was dissatisfied with some of her limitations, so I dismissed her and dualled Safana to a mage. That has worked surprisingly well, except that you really have to keep her off the front line. Safana is also fun to play because she will fool around with your male characters, especially Coran.

Thief: Imoen is my choice here. I tried dualling her to a mage, but found I liked her better as a pure thief. Her sound script is annoying, however, so I recreated her with the sound script from Imoen in BGII and now everything is copasetic.

Originally posted by Lelio
I have been through Baldurs Gate twice before, ages and ages ago, butr fanicied doing it again before its descendent Never Winter Nights is released.

Trouble is, i have forgotten who are the best NPC's. Looking at the descriptions on this site shows that none of them are that good.

Can you tell me why these characters are not very good stat wise (compared to npc's in BGII)?

Also who is the best:

Cleric/Druid?
Fighter/Paladin/Fighter?
Wizard?
Thief?

Druids are basically a cleric stripped of a few spells in BG1. Therefor, you should go for a cleric. Viconia is the best cause of high Wis (extra spells) and Dex (low AC and bonus to ranged weapons).

As said before, bows are very powerful in BG1. The best ranged Fighter is by far Coran, who also doubles as a Thief. Coran gets bonuses for being an Elf, for high Dex (even more so if you give him the tome) and for having Mastery (!) in bows.

As for melee Fighters there are two obvious choises. Shar-Teel for high Str and Dex (low AC) or Kagain for high Con (loads of HP and regeneration(!)). If you like backstabbing Montaron is nice as well.

Just like in BG2 Edwin is the best Mage (extra spells and the best opposition school).

I think it's often a waste to use a pure thief. Rather use two multies or duals and let them specialise in different thief skills. They are all OK.