Finally getting my Good party together

Veristek

I've finished all the Evil companion quests (Dorn, Korgan, Hexxat, and Edwin) , and I've finished most of the other companion quests. I've collected 3 of my "final" party members. My party is this.

CHARNAME (fighter / mage)
Mazzy
Keldorn
Jan
Rasaad (temporary)
Anomen (temporary)

Mazzy, Keldorn, and Jan are 3 of my final party members. The next final character will be Aerie, which will be the only romance I'll get to experience. I dismissed Viconia after recruiting her, and would need to dismiss Neera after opening up the Wild Mage Refuge so I can get Wilson during Rasaad's companion quest. That means no romance with Viconia or Neera. Jahiera can still be romanced because I dismissed her in Chapter 1 successfully (see my older threads).

Although I would have to choose between Jahiera or Aerie as romance, because I'd have to dismiss one of them for Imoen (assuming she's forced into the party). Aerie would have more cleric power than Jahiera, plus mage spells to boot. Jahiera would have druid spells plus fighter power, but I already have 3 melee fighters (CHARNAME, Mazzy, and Keldorn).

The last few companion quests I need to do: Rasaad, Neera, Keldorn, Anomen, Jahiera, and Aerie. I'm almost done with the Unseeing Eye quest, got first rift device piece, heading back to the cultists and kill that beholder "god". I still have a lot of quests to do around the city like Copper Coronet, the Skinner murders, Lord Jierdan Firkraag, thieves guild, the guy buried alive, and the kid ghost, all which I've come across. There's probably a bunch of miscellanous quests I haven't found yet. Haven't finished Trademeet yet (the genie stuff), and haven't touched Watcher's Keep yet. Bought Defender of Easthaven and the Balduran Shield. Didn't realize how much it nerfs those Beholders in the sewer ruins, their rapid fire laser eyes turn into a huge joke.

Any suggestions on where to go from here? I'm kinda disappointed with the romance system, and that my only real options would be Aerie (a must for her utility) or Jahiera at expense of having Imoen or other 6th slot party member. Any quests or items I should watch out for at this point?

gorgonzola

lord jeridan's quest give a very nice weapon for keldorn.

after the genie quest in trademeet is completed you get access to a merchant that has some very useful items.

an item that i consider fundamental is the robe of vecna, it cut the time a mage need to cast a spell, very useful always as you can ie breach the defenses of a mage or cast a key spell faster and with less chance to be disrupted. it becomes super strong late game, when imoen will have access to hla (she needs 3M xp to get the first one), improved alacrity let cast spells overriding the 1 spell/round limit and with the robe it mean all the magic missiles, melf magic arrows and fireballs/flame arrows/skull traps she has memorized in a couple of seconds as the cast time becomes 0, and then other 10 seconds to cast other spells. or better her projected image, a lev 7 clone spell, can do it in her place. so with only a lev 7 spell you basically unleash all her spellbook for free.

also the belt sold by ribald that give a str bonus is a must have imo, better str give better mlee thac0 and better damage with the mlee weapons and some ranged ones, slings, returning axes and daggers.
an other item sold by ribald is the shield that reflects the ranged attacks back to the enemy, if you manage to have the ranged enemies firing on who weld it, maybe he uses a 1h ranged weapon against them (sling or returning weapon) some battles where ranged attackers can give problems become much easier. it reflect also a couple of spells that are in form of arrow, melf magic arrow and flame arrow, if it has not been changed in the latest ee updates, so is good against the mages that use them.