I couldn't remember Cernd's and Valygar's name even though I let them join my party on every playthrough to complete their respective quests. Then again, it's been 15 years since I last played BG2. The best run I ever had was a pure mage party (Aerie, Edwin, Imoen, Jan, Nalia and a wild mage as PC). What they lacked in tanks, they made up with summoned monsters as cannon fodder. Enemies got spammed with magic missiles and fireballs before they could even move. Great fun.