I am new to this game but I have played Baldur's Gate and Planescape Troment quite a while ago.

So when I started Icewind Dale, the new concept for me was creating party at the beginning of game.

Because creating 6 characters is pretty tedious thing to do and I don't really like controlling 6 characters, I would very much prefer to just go with one character, ok maybe 2 or 3 if it's mandatory..

So the question is, is creating full party worth the effort and increased control complexity? What minimal number of characters do I have to create to finish the game on each difficulty level?

Are there any good story characters that can join me so I have to keep some slots free for them?

As far as I can remember there are no npc followers in Icewind Dale, so you have to create every single party member yourself.

That said there is an import function on the character creation screen that allows you to select some pre-made characters. I wouldn't really recommend them though, I'm sure they're ok, but I prefer to roll my characters myself so I can custom make them for their intended role.

The game is balanced with a party of 6 in mind, but you can play with fewer characters if you want to. Icewind Dale is quite combat focused, and the party will find itself swarmed a lot, so having enough fighter types in the party to protect your casters is important.

I would recommend a party with 4-6 characters, and if you go with 4, you most likely should plan to dual class or multi class several of them. Also there is nothing stopping you from creating a party of 4, and then add two more later. You can access the party creation screen at any time, and add / remove characters.

My party now has 6 characters. (Mainly because of the added inventory space.)
I wanted to make a good all round party with serious spell casting and ranged combat capability, so I ended up with:

1: Bard - Archer + Mage support, functions as party leader to gain better conversation options.
2: Fighter - Sword + Shield tank type.
3: Ranger dual classed to Cleric at lvl 3 - Main healer + a master with the sling.
4: Fighter dual classed to Druid at lvl 4 - Support healer + crowd control.
5: Fighter dual classed to Mage at lvl 3 - Main offensive caster.
6: Mage / Thief multi class - Support caster / archer + Scouting for traps (when I can be bothered :-)

you can try to solo, but without a healer (ie divine caster such as cleric or druid) your rest-until-healed times are going to reach absurd amounts quite quickly (I've once rested in one place for close to a year!), resulting in items dropped on the ground disappearing after rest.
also, there are some annoying traps and a few locked doors that would will want to bypass using a thief.
casters are generally best at soloing (because of the area of effect damage spells and the ability to summon stuff to fight for you).

a party of 2:
cleric/ranger or fighter/druid dualclass (for divine spells and melee fighting)
mage/thief (for scouting, arcane spells, locks/traps, ranged fighting)

should get you a far way

IWD was created and balanced for playing a party of 6 at normal difficulty.
If you play a smaller party the game might become unbalanced, your high level mage might not find scrolls fast enough, challenging undeads might just be turned by your high level cleric and having high level priest spells long before you're supposed to can make some parts of the game too easy while other encounters will take more time than planned.

It's definitely worth creating 6 characters yourself before starting the game, it won't take too long. If you know what you want you can get a very powerful party in less than 30 minutes like in this longplay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6Q9fDPvlXo (you can even create stronger one in less time).

As noted, you should go with a party of 6 (or maybe 5) if you're unsure of your skill with the game. You can definitely go with fewer though, and still enjoy it. I ran through it and had a blast with a 3 character party:

Human FTR who dual classed to Druid at FTR level 3 - melee and divine offense spells.
Human Ranger who dual classed to Cleric at RGR level 3 - melee and divine defense/healing spells.
Elf Mage/Thief - magic, ranged support, and traps, locks, and pick pockets.

I highly recommend spending some points in pick pocketing, as there are a few NPCs you can pick pocket for some very nice items.

Controlling a full party doesn't require much more time than controlling a smaller one. Just give a ranged weapon, ammo and a ranged attack script to everyone, enable AI and they'll attack on their own. The time you've to spend for searching for traps or casting a fireball is the same, whether you've 2 other party members watching or 5. With more party members you have more inventory space and don't have to spend so much time with inventory shuffling, big parties also allow adding characters for comfort, having a bard identify items directly and sing his healing song is far more comfortable than having to cast healing and identify spells and searching for a resting place.

You could start with a smaller party to get a feel for the game and bring in additional party members later on. while a low level fighter is more of a liability other classes can still influence battles while you catch them up in levels as long as you keep an eye on them around ranged/caster enemies.

I'd personally roll with a crew of 4 instead of 6. But that's mostly for xp reasons.

I'm a huge advocate of the paladin of mystra/wizard combo. What I've done in the past is match tier of wizard spell with paladin level, so leveling would be like: Paladin, wizard, wizard, wizard, paladin, wizard wizard, paladin, wizard wizard, paladin etc. You end up with a really versatile healer/spellsword/front line fighter.

Never used them but supposedly cleric of lathander is also a good choice - seeing as how your domains involve fire and the sun, and this is Icewind Dale.

Sounds like you're talking about IWD2. The OP was asking about IWD 1 (I wish GOG would put up a separate forum for IWD2, actually).

I personally like the Paladin of Helm, which allows you to cross-class with FTR. Take 4 levels for the extra feats and Weapon Specialization and you've got yourself a great holy tank.

Yeah, you're right. I noticed that after posting.

If you want a party of 3 characters go with
Paladin-Twohanded sword and best armor+ Good Stats.

Ranger/cleric-Fighting ability plus spells both healing and some offensive with whatever blunt weapon you can choose.

Thief-Daggers short swords+high stealth and traps, enable sneak attack since you can use it many times in a fight.

With that party of 3 you should have an interesting time with the game.

Paladin should probably have long swords; Pale Justice (long sword) is the best weapon in the game, and usable only by paladins. For a second selection a missile weapon or hammers would be my next choice. If other ranged fighters are available, choose hammers. There are several magical hammers available reasonably early on, and the skeletal undead resist all types of slashing damage, making blunt weapons more effective.

No right or wrong way to play, just my 2 cents.

I've spent hours upon hours doing this for both IWD1 and (to a much lesser extent) IWD2. I love creating characters. I realize you can cheat whatever stats you want for IWD1, but there's something terribly satisfying about rolling a stellar character 'legally' that makes me really enjoy it.

I love the first five levels of a PC's progression because they're at their most crunchy then...

And the internal dialogue I have with myself as I create each PC is my favorite part of the game, though I never put 6 PCs in anymore. 3 or 4, depending on how I'm feeling, is my usual.