I am playing Pillars of Eternity , still on version 1.03 (I didn't update because of limited transfer I have on my Internet connection). I have some questions and I hope that some more experienced players can help me.

*** Some minor SPOILERS here, beware ***

My current playthrough is with a Hunter plus computer companions. I wanted to see their stories so I stick to their help. For the moment my party is at level 10, I have most of the quests finished (at least these that I know of). Only left with Endless Paths, some weird quest about finding birds and I think one or two others. Generally, I don't have any problems in combat, actually I don't even need to use any special skills , I just BACKSPACE+A and see how my party destroys enemies. So I thought about finishing the game, I get easily to the last boss but then problem starts to happen. Thaos basically one-shots my ranged and mages, not to mention that big statues AOEs destroy half of my party with a single blow. I tihnk that difficulty of this last fight is insane. Like I said: to this fight, everything was really a breeze, so I am sadly surprised that this last one seems to be out of my reach. Any ideas here?
I have to admit that I wanted to finish this run, since I do not like my party very much. I think the companions are mostly boring or even annoying and my main character - I don't like her much either, especially when I see her dying from a single blow :(

I am thinking of a new run, with the party of my own (create my own companions), but can someone tell me: are there enough quests and stuff to be able to level a self-created party of six to level 12? (I can imagine that quests for companions give some EXP too, so I would have to do without that...) Any suggestions?

Also, I wonder about starting the second playthrough on Hard, but I am really confused here. The game on Normal was rather easy, except for insane fight with Thaos and the second fight with Roderic (and his Vampires) which is damn hard as well.

First of all, the cheese which worked the best for me during the battle with Thaos was to immediately run away and go where the giants can't reach me. The arena is surrounded with hightened 'barriers' - I think there's 4 of them or so. The upper-left one is covered by a big Adra growth. Just run behind that, and before Thaos arrives to your party, buff up as much as possible. When he gets to you, get his health as low as possible and he will turn invincible until you kill the two golems - thankfully, since you're out of their reach, golems are no longer aggroed and you can take them one at a time if you're careful. And then just finish off Thaos. Summons help, just as disabling and debuffing spells do. I found the fight quite easy on normal, then again my party was lvl12.

As for levelling your party to the max level - to be frank, I'm not sure how did you manage to only end up at 10. Admittedly I did do the companion quests, but those don't actually net all that much XP and by the time I was exploring Twin Elms, my entire party was maxed out and all received XP just ended in a void. If you want to grind some experience, make sure to do all bounty quests from your fotress (not sure how the building is called, it's the only one outside your fortress with the hunter - after you restore it, he gives you bounty quests) and exploring Endless Paths nets quite a bit of XP as well, altho if you think Thaos is difficult, boy you're in for a surprise.

Edit: What the hell's a Gole? Fixed.

Maybe he didn't the bountyhunter quests, as I understand, the XP awards were balanced in the 1.05 for avoiding the characters reaching lvl 12 before Twin elms (and the endless path helps a lot for reaching the cap).

One possible suggestion: Grieve mother can charm one statue, though you need luck with the dices.
In my case, I think there were a bug as one of the statues remained charmed for all the fight.

Paralyze scrolls for a character with good Int and accuracy.

You need to make the ranger cabin in your stronghold, and then go inside to meet the ranger who will give the quests (Very, very hard at level 6, at least in the last difficulty setting).

Probably making the quests/tasks will give you the XP necessary for reaching one or two levels more.

Good to see more ideas (Paralyze scrolls - I used that once and ... forgot about it completely :D )

I have everything built in Stronghold and I checked the buildings only to see some fancy shops. But somehow I missed the quest giving NPC.
Anyway, talking about Stronghold, How do I take prisoners? How can I put anybody into my dungeon? (I feel rather ashamed to ask such questions after over 80 hours of gamplay, but hey, IMHO the game is rather bad in explaining how some things work...)

It's an option which appears in conversation with some NPCs when it is relevant. I have only found once such NPC in the entire game, a group of bandits near the statue of Magran where you can find Durance. The group wasn't even there the first time I have explored the location, I suspect they appeared there after I have finished dungeon.

They will get out of your dungeon eventually regardless of what you do, though. You might get an item from someone who wishes them free if you are lucky (and if you agree).

Seem they appears after you reach the main city, not before. Anyway, that is more or less when you begin to have chances to take prisoners.

you have thaos and one giant that cast some type of pillars spell and and another who does physical damage.

here is what worked for me:
keep your main party spread out if they're long range attackers. the spellcasting giant does small area of effect damage.

I have everyone quickslot an item (or two) that summons a creature. I only summon 1 creature for each giant to keep them occupied and away from my party while I'm attacking thaos. when that creature goes down I summon another. I'm also healing these creatures (and resurrecting main party members) when possible as they all can go down quick too.

once thaos is down and his barrier is up I go straight for the physical attacking giant. you can't attack thaos again until the spellcaster giant is down (in my game). I go for the physical attacking giant first so I don't have to go back and forth with thaos.

basically have most of my party set up for long range while summoned creatures are the front lines. because I don't go back and forth with thaos and the giants I attack thaos->physical giant->spellcaster giant->thaos.

just make sure you're taking advantage of all those fancy potions you've been saving up as well.

I beat it on normal with a rogue (me), eder, durance, aloth, grieving mother, and the dwarf chick with the dog.

I'm not amazing at these games and it was hard for me. took me 3-4 tries before using this strategy. and all my characters (except the dog) were alive (as I resurrected them a few times of course) with life to spare.

I found I could sometimes dominate or charm one of the giants. That gives me time to get the squishy characters to move back. With a druid character I found that you can drop some of that high level nature damage on a titan that lasts awhile and does raw damage, positioning it so that it affects him and not your party. Then have a tank type character on each titan to keep them from roaming around and leaving that damage area (I had eder and the paladin for this).

Once Thaos takes over one of the titans (you see his soul leave) then don't bother attacking him anymore. Just burn down whichever titan is weakest as fast as you can, and that's the one to summon stuff around. Spread out people fighting it so that they're not all in front. It's a bit easier at that point if you make it because the titans don't use spells.

Use all those potions you've never had a need to use even once in the rest of the game. Give Eder some of the stronger endurance potions, a full stack. Do the same with a second tank type of character if you have one. Use whatever other potions seem useful for everyone else. Search around in that stash for scrolls to resurrect characters (forget the name, but brings them back into the fight if they've been knocked out). Eat some good food too before starting the fight.

It was hard, but not nearly as unfair and brutal as the master below. The snag may be that since the rest of the game is easy that players don't learn the tactics. It's also a stupid design decision if you're forced to reload and choose other people for the party, or learn new spells, etc. It's why I hate "boss" fights in games, everything's fun and enjoyable and then you end up stuck. In this game, going down to easy mode does not help very much for those fights as all that does is reduce number of additional enemies (and you always get two titans).

My 4 warrior party just rushed him to prevent him from casting any spells, while my 2 wizards cast oil slicks on the 2 golems.
That fight was over in 5 minutes.