After reading a few consecutive comments that suggests that Mazzy is used as frequently for sword & shield strategies as for her mastery of shortbows, I wondered what other methods people use with the Baldur's Gate NPCs that do not line up with the obvious. What do you guys like to do?
The main one for me is making Viconia my primary tank. HP never meant a whole lot to me - at least not in BG2. With her super high Dexterity, access to the best armour, and natural Magic Resistance, Viconia can hit -10AC before you throw any buffs upon her, whilst disregarding most Mage attacks. That's pretty huge: I think you have to drop down into The Underdark in SoA before things that aren't Dragons start to hurt her. I've seen her do some neat damage with a sling before, but I don't think it is as much as Haer'Dalis, for example, can do with his weapons if Viconia is keeping the enemy attention away from him.
My secondary arcane spellcaster (usually Imoen, or Jan) tends to exclusively use the 'other' spells: Breach; Dispel Magic; Spell Shield; Summon Monster. Because this character is always able to use a Thief's array of weapons (Edwin is never a secondary spellcaster, and Aerie is never in my party), they tend to do damage that way whilst covering the bases. They come to the fore mainly in the big battles, or when all the Fighters have to step aside and let two Mages duke it out in a chess game of disarming spells.
Meanwhile, I leave it to the primary arcane caster (Edwin/Nalia/PC) to throw on the Robe of Vecna and toss out Chain Lightning, Fireball, Chaos, and the critical spells that change the early stages of a battle, before relaxing them back into Aganazzar's Scorcher, Magic Missile, and other low-artillery spells and letting the secondary caster facilitate changes in the battle.
