Hi, I might be beating a dead horse here but as I started a new playthrough I need some advice from more experienced players here.
First I want a party of at least 2-3 tanks, 1 mage, 1 cleric and 1 ranged!
My main is already a multiclass Fighter/Mage.

So these are the companions Id like to hire:

Iomen
Jaheira / Khalid
Branwen
Ajantis
Minsc
Neera

As you can see that's far too many for a 6-man party!

Which one should I ditch?

Neera, without a doubt.

Imoen.
She is unaccessible for a looong time, and is only half-decent to be used as thief, what you don't even want.


Ditching Neera would be a mistake to be honest, as you lack options for a mage. Just don't forget to save regularly to avoid being killed by some wild surge!

I'd go with the "canon" party. You'll need a thief late game for traps and locks, and since Imoen is the only one on your list, she becomes a bit of a necessity. Ajantis is okay as a face for the group, but in terms of actual combat effectiveness falls way behind the likes of Khalid and Minsc. Then it's basically just a judgment call between Branwen and Jaheira. You could take both, but your only Mage is Charname and he's a multiclass lagging from the getgo, so I'd probably grab Jaheira since you already have Khalid and move onto the last slot...

There's never really a "right" time to take Neera or any of the other Beamgarbage NPCs. Switch her out for Dynaheir and never look back.

Imoen is taken at thevery start of BG2, and you don't gain her back until late midgame.
She's also a weakling, and a bad character. The best thief is actualy Jan Jansen.

Edwin surpasses any mage with his ridiculous extra spells.

And Viconia is the best frontline fighter after a couple of equipments given to her.

Imoen is at best a mediocre choice, Beamdog or not.

I think you first need to realize which game they are talking about. The OP says Branwen and Khalid which are only in BG1. So you are wrong in every turn.

Seems you forgot if you hire characters, not all version of the game takes them away from you between transitions.
As not mentioned it is BG1 exclusive, I simply assumed the party is brought through all the trilogy.

You mean mods, not versions. There are no version of Baldur's Gate where you can play Branwen or Khalid in BG2. And since OP never mentioned anything about MODs, your assumption is wrong.. again.

Yes, you did.

You'll want to keep Imoen since playing without a thief is annoying. Branwen is the only cleric so you might want keep her too. Jaheira adds druid spells and Neera the ability to cast mage spells of the highest level. Ajantis adds paladin abilities while Minsc and Khalid don't offer anything unique.

Imoen is a good thief. She can locate every trap in both games. She is also very malleable. If you need a spellcaster she also makes for a good mage.

Her skills as a thief in BG2 are barely enough unfortunately. The original game lacks a really good thief who will stay with the party till the end. This was probably intended to convince player to keep Yoshimo in his party. There's of course Jan Jansen and he's the only thief that can increase his skills (apart from Yoshimo that is), but he's also a mage, which slows the progression of his skills a lot. EE adds however a single class thief, which is very nice for people who already played the game. As for Imoen mage skills, there's a problem with them as well. Imoen leaves the party in the beginning of the game and she's a few levels behind once you have an option to take her back. But if it wasn't for the level deficit, she'd be quite a good mage.

Imoen is everything the party needs and more. Her skills as a thief and mage both are easily, and I mean EASILY, boosted to cover any situation with potions, scrolls, spells etc. She is STILL the best option if people would only play her as such. Unfortunately, short-sighted and prejudiced people falsely see her as "bad" and play her as such. When I play BG, 1 or 2, she is ALWAYS in my party and performs much better than the others you mention

EE NPCs are broken.

You'll need to dump two, since you only have 5 slots for NPCs.

The only thief in your list is Imoen, so she stays.

Decision point 1: Neera is the only pure mage in your list. Keep her if you want a pure mage, or dump her if you are satisfied with your PC covering arcane casting. Your PC can probably cover this fine, though he won't be able to reach 5th level spells. He can use a bow while not casting. Neera does introduce more random chance to your battles, possibly helping or possibly killing you. This is an easy drop choice.

Decision point 2: Jaheira and Branwen can both cover healing and buffs, though Jaheria pulls from the Druid list while Branwen gets the cleric list. Both will eventually reach level 8 in their divine class and both reach 4th level spells. One of these two is an easy drop choice.

Decision point 3: Minsc, Ajantis, and Khalid all fill similar roles, with slightly different focuses.
-I like Ajantis as a tank because he has Lay On Hands for pinch healing. Between heavy armor, good strength, that flash heal, and easy Protection From Evil, he's the tankiest of the three. He doesn't have exceptional strength, but his only truly weak stat combat stat is Dex, so he's easy to fix.
-Minsc will do more damage than the other two because of his high strength, but his AC may be somewhat lacking because he can't wear plate. However, he CAN use longer reach weapons (like two handed swords) from slightly behind someone else, and he can use a bow just fine.
-Khalid has middling combat stats, which means his strength is pretty poor for someone relying on weapons. There isn't much to recommend him over either of the other two. Khalid is the easiest drop choice here.

Overall, I'd suggest dropping Khalid and Neera, and consider replacing Jaheira with Dynaheir (complete the Minsc/Dynaheir pair while dropping the second half of the Khalid/Jaheira pair).

Final Party: F/M, Imoen, Ajantis, Branwen, Minsc, and either Jaheira or Dynaheir.
If you take Jaheira, then you'll have two divine casters that can both do some off-tanking.
If you take Dynaheir, then you'll have a full mage to supplement your F/T. This is like taking Neera without taking the uncertainty of a wild mage.