Frustrated

Yay! I loved NWN2's main campaign. I chose a cleric and that turned out to be the munchkin class in this game. Paladin should be a great choice because of his high charisma/diplomacy. I liked avoiding combat by diplomacy and I may replay the game as an evil fighter/thief and choose bluff and intimidate.

I found the NPC's to be uneven, but I'm not real big on all the banter anyway. I tried to avoid as much of that as possible. Khelgar was well done, and so was another that you'll meet later, the rest just annoyed me.

Sorcha Ravenlock
"I'm glad I stuck with it now."
Yes it can be very fun, but that first 10 hours almost killed me and then I met Khelgar.

"I still seem to be getting the full whack of XP"
I am almost positive the more NPCs you have in your party the less xp you get, though I haven't checked or read about summons.
Not to worry though with the standard party even single level reduced characters, will reach 20 if your looking at doing all the quest and sidequest which I try to do.

crpgnut
" chose a cleric and that turned out to be the munchkin class in this game"
Really? Cleric seemed to be the best class to play since it's not a class you get as an NPC <basicly>, though I did play a Wiz personally Cleric seems liked the perfect fit.