Want to try to play through the game once finally with my first character. I rerolled my Half-Orc Barbarian. Wondering what party I should build around him for plowing through the game in a quick fashion? I am NG btw, I am a softy, can't do the evil party thing my first time through.

in approximate order of recruitment

you (barbarian)

minsc (ranger)

jahiera (fighter/druid)

yoshimo (retired in favour of imoen if and when you rescue her)

amomen (fighter->cleric)

keldorn (inquisitor paladin)

wouldnt a party without a caster of some sort be kinda hard?

switch jahera for edwin, i know hes evil, but i dont think he conflicts too badly IIRC. It may however be against your playing rules to have somebody of such an allignment in your party. its up to you.

I guess Aerie is too much of a liability?

A cleric/mage. I found her to be quite useful.

ah, imoen is a mage, that is if you decide to switch her for yoshimo.

There's 'just about' no such thing as a bad party, albeit mixing good and evil NPCs may lead to troubles if you haven't modded your game. A balanced party (mix of warrior, rogue, spellcaster, and priest) however is likely to better adapt to a wider variety of circumstances.

Aerie, while handy, will struggle more in a large party where experience is spread thin and the experince that she gets is spread across two classes. Her value is eroded especially if you've got Anomen covering your Clerical needs, and Imoen / Nalia / Edwin covering your spellcaster needs.

Taking Armen's very good suggested party into consideration;

Both Keldorn and Anomen have average Dexterity scores, and only one can wear the magical item that improves this statistic. The generally accepted theory is to give Anomen the magical item, and use Keldorn's reach with his two-handed sword to strike from behind the front line.

Your PC, Minsc, and Jaheira can all tank in addition to Anomen, so you might be mindful of a particularly warrior-heavy set-up. This doesn't bother me greatly (especially if you've got Throne of Bhaal), but others may be inclined to swap Minsc, Keldorn, or even Jaheira for another mage (as Timothy has proposed above; Jaheira for Edwin).

I think Armen's party suggestion is fine, although if it were me I'd drop Minsc for the very unfairly maligned and underrated Nalia once you visit the Copper Coronet. I surprise myself to say this, but Jaheria's probably your next weakest link, again because of her multiclass status in a large group, and that it takes her so long to hit Druid Level 14 (although those Summon Fire Elemental and Summon Woodland Being spells are pretty handy). As a half-orc, there's no luvv'n for you in an unmodded set-up.

I got bored with that real fast for some reason and ended soloing on a Kensai. Maybe I shoulda ramped up the difficulty or something. But I did the Minsc/Jaheira goodie/goodie party more times than figured I guess. I am about to do the slavers now, I suck at solo too. Lotsa of reloading quicksaves going on heh.

Why don't you split the difference and go with a party of three or four, with less likely choices like Jan, Mazzy and Cernd?

Why do you suck at solo-ing? Is it the mage fights with stuns / holds / fear / confusion type attacks, or is it simply you get swamped and die from physical damage? I must confess that I've never really understood the fascination many others have with Kensais, and would suggest that there are more efficient solo options.