Who are your favorite NPCs in Baldur's Gate II?

I seem to fall into the Minsc Yoshimbo Jaheria Imoen trap every time I play the game. The party is pretty well balanced with them, so it seems hard to break up the crew that you get at the beginning of the game. One of these days I'll have to try a counter-party and run through the EE version of the game with some of the other characters.