Are we talking stats and abilities here, or... something else?

Everything. I just like her a lot. And Minsc. But, she is my favorite character.

She is a very capable divine caster and backup fighter, and an asset to any party for that reason, but as for her other traits (personality etc., especially in BG2), I find her exceedingly annoying, and hardly ever keep her in my group for that reason -- in BG1 her and Khalid are usually gone right after Nashkel mines, if I pick her up at all; in BG2, she's gone as soon as we exit Irenicus' dungeon into Waukeen's Promenade. The only exceptions are if I'm role playing her into the party. Not my favourite character at all. Same goes for Minsc. After you've had him in your party once or twice, and the novelty wears off, his 'character' also becomes exceedingly annoying.

I don't know, I thought Jaheira was a very deep and interesting character. But, the great thing about Baldur's Gate is, you can have whoever you want in your party! :D

This, particularly with regard to her personality; can't say I was as wild about her from a mechanics point of view, though. Honestly, it's a wonder that she's as good as she is, given her abysmal (for a Druid, at least) Wisdom.

I like her a lot, although I can certainly understand why others may find her annoying. But as far as Minsc goes... I'm with Hickory on that 100%.

One thing I highly recommend is if you play through the game a number of times, shake things up by taking completely different party members than usual. I sometimes tend to gravitate towards the same core NPCs in my party and only switch out one or two when I do a new run. But I've now taken to going with a completely different party altogether each time I play and it really adds a freshness to the game.

That's only a problem for people used to min/max'ing. When you consider that her role is not pure druid, but a hybrid fighter backup character, her wisdom is perfectly fine: at 14 she still gets a bonus first level spell. For power players, I can see your point, but otherwise she's a great asset, character notwithstanding.

For someone roleplaying and sticking with characters who made sense to travel with from a narrative perspective like I did (Khalid, Imoen, Xzar, Montaron included), she was the only healer in the party, and her lack of bonus spells made itself felt hard. Granted, her low Wisdom doesn't hurt as much as it does in BG2, where she starts getting access to higher level spells that lack those bonus slots.

Spells in BG1 are at an extreme premium, anyway. Look at a pure mage with 18 intelligence. When you leave Candlekeep you have 1 spell. Jaheira gets 2, the same as a cleric with 18 wisdom. It's only as levels advance that she loses out, but you mustn't lose sight of her versatility: she can step up to the front with a potion of strength and a good staff. With her fighter class, she outmatches any druid or cleric in that respect. She's never going to compete with decent clerics for healing, but that is not her strength.

I do not care for Jaheira either. She's ... kind of a bitch, and statistically a rather poor character. Druids make for lousy fighters anyway, yet her WIS is poor and her fighter centric stats are just above unacceptable. Every time she opens her mouth in BG2 I hit the mute button. Everything she says is condescending and bitchy. I know she just lost her husband (really, what *did* she ever see in that guy?) but if she's supposed to be this world-weary rough and tumble adventurer she just needs to shut up and get over it.

And in BG1 she comes paired with Khalid who is just an abysmal fighter and irritating as all hell. Even compared to the sound bites issued by ... pretty much every NPC in the game. He's even more annoying than Minsc. Difference is I can tolerate Minsc because Minsc is hands down the best fighter in BG1 and second best in BG2 (the best for a good-aligned party, though).

Besides, I just don't *get* druids. Especially a fighter/druid. Druids are squishy. Even a non-multiclass Cleric can hold her own in a melee because of superior weapons and armor, but a Druid gets torn to shreds. Druids have nature spells which in BG2 are pretty freaking sweet. From the start Jaheira's nature spells are freaking awesome (dat nymph), but BG1's level cap is too low to even begin to start making decent use of nature magic.

To be fair, multiclassing as a Druid/Fighter does remedy that by letting Jaheira wear metal armor with no penalty, for some reason. That always seemed like a bit of a major oversight once I discovered it.

Why? She's not a druid, she's a Fighter/Druid. Fighters wear heavy armour. Wearing metal armour in this case is no different than a battle mage wearing armour. It's part of who they are.

I liked her personality, but to each his own. Maybe I like my women to be mysterious. :)

Because it's a religious restriction, akin to a Cleric being restricted to only blunt weapons. Druids are hardcore about nature, and the idea of wearing something as symbolic of "civilization" as a suit of metal armor would be sacrilege. This isn't like a mage being too hampered by armor to be able to do the finer movements of casting, while a Fighter/Druid still harbors the spirituality of a Druid, so having a MCd character not have to worry about it makes no sense; no matter how practiced they might get at wearing armor, it's something that their religion forbids. It'd be akin to, say, a Rabbi being able to call down the might of god so long as they abide by kashrut, but all of a sudden becoming able to disregard that upon gaining experience in the military.