I'm considering playing with the NPC mod and would likely not tweak the NPCs much, mainly for script reasons. So that gives me a paladin, ranger (focused as an archer), fighter (that I would dual immediately to a cleric), bard, and fighter/thief. I don't think the bard will be able to cover all my spellcasting, so I'm thinking the protagonist will have to be a mage. This is kind of a problem because I have to keep the "protagonist" in the first slot for the banter to work property and I'm not keen on putting my mage on point. The only other option is to reverse my formations. Unless the bard actually could handle all my magic, but I seem to recall needing more support than that. Not to mention, it's probably best to have the bard focused on being a bard (i.e. songs and instruments).

Maybe the bard would be good enough if I dual the fighter to a druid (to fill the gap with offensive spellcasting), then create a cleric for the main.

Maybe there's a workable combination for this I haven't considered?

Any tips? Thanks.

Here is something I could point out (assuming non-EE version):

Bards can cast spells up to 8th level. They need to be high levels to cast high level spells, but they also level up very quickly.

There are only 2 9th level spells, neither of which is particularly good. (On Heart of Fury mode, one of them is actually useless, leaving only one usable spell of that level.)

Edit: Also worth noting, for spells that scale with caster level, Bards will have a higher level than Mages with the same XP total, resulting in Bard spells being stronger than Mage spells.

One combo you can use to semi good effect is a gnome illusionist/cleric. You want a decent Con stat for save bonuses so the hit points aren't terrible. You will have a Dex of at least 16 (I think) with the armor spell and a shield you can survive in the leader slot. Make sure you get the Helm of the Defender usable only by Halfings and Gnomes as it give a +3 AC boost. You end up with an insane amount of spells to cast which isn't a bad thing. The NPC Mod is staggeringly good and really adds to the enjoyment of the game for me even with my underwhelment with the weapon proficiencies.