Create Party at start up?

[Epic Joe Smash]

Should I create a party on start up?
Do I find party members later on?
Can I create party members later on?
Thank you

[Caethyril]

I'm not sure whether you can create new members later on in single-player. There's definitely no in-game feature for creating and hiring new members like there is in Pillars of Eternity.

There are loads of potential party members, so no worries there. =)

I feel the story makes most sense for a single player character. Even if you create a party, the first of those characters will be treated as the protagonist. Also, the Beamdog party members Dorn, Neera, and Rasaad have party banters and side-quests. If you're planning to play through the sequel as well, most recruitable NPCs in BG2 have banters and side-quests. That said, creating your own party ensures that you have exactly the skillset you want, and you don't have to create a full party of six, either.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Originally posted by HateMongerXxX:

Do I find party members later on?

Yes, many NPC companions.

Originally posted by HateMongerXxX:

Can I create party members later on?

No.

[red255]

there are plenty of NPC scattered around the map to find. I generally would suggest that over using a specialized character build.

but you do you.

[Tauceti]

If you want a normal Baldur's Gate experience create a single character. You'll find companions on the way. If you wanna add some extra party members for roleplay or class reasons go ahead.

You can't create party members later on. Either you start with them or not at all.

[wendigo211]

Imo, the companions you might want are:

• Fighter for a good party. There is Khalid in BG, but no good options in BG2.
  
• Thief for a good party. There are no pure class Thieves for a good party in BG2, and Jan Jansen is the only Thief you can level past 7 for a good party in BG2. You don't really need one, but they have some fun HLAs.
  
• Combat capable Cleric. It doesn't even have to be a Fighter/Cleric, just a Cleric with a good enough dex and strength that Draw Upon Holy Might will push them over 18. Evil parties have Viconia (she has a low strength, but you can cast Strength of One before DUHM) but good parties have horrible choices until BG2.
  
• A Druid with decent stats. You have Jaheira if you want a Fighter/Druid (although her stats are pretty bad), but the less said about Faldorn and Cernd the better.
  
• A non-specialist mage, for an evil party. You don't really need one, but there are no generalist choices for an evil party (Wild Mages don't count!).

You can cover pretty much anything else with NPCs, and you don't need any of the options I mentioned to beat the game. They are just character types the game doesn't provide at various points in the saga.

[happy]

you CAN create party members later on.

just start a multiplayer game and play it solo, this will only affect the fact that you get to play the game solo and have access, at all time, to the multiplayer character creation thingy.