A few questions from a noob:

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Do I need to hold onto these scraps of paper I picked up in the mortuary? I'd hate to lose out on some stuff because of inventory management issues.

What happens to XP when I dual class? Let's assume I'm a 6th level fighter, with half the XP needed to become a 7th level fighter. If I dual to Mage then, will some XP be lost? If I go from Mage back to Fighter, do I pick up at the exact XP I left off at, or will I go to the minimum of a 6th level Fighter?

(I hope that was clear).

Am I alright with going with only 4 total party members in this game? I've always been a fan of slightly smaller parties than the standard 6 allowed. I'm considering dabbling with the other NPCs, but staying with only Dak'kon, Annah, and Fall From Grace.

Where do NPCs go when they're dismissed? What about when Nameless dies? I've only died with Morte in my party, and he was with me in the mortuary. I don't know if others are there with you as well (which would be weird, because Morte's the only one from inside the mortuary) or if they're someplace else.

 

I put the scraps in a barrel somewhere, it's highly unlikely that they do anything for you outside the mortuary.
No XP is ever lost. Unless you consider potential bonus XP from having high wisdom 'lost'. Your class (XP) level is simply stored and inaccessible until you switch again. Even unused mage spells are stored, but you need to rest as a mage to replenish the used ones, and bonus spells from equipped items.
I think it's possible to progress with 4 members, but often NPCs give you dialogue options. Ignus is poorest in this regard, most of his dialogue is spent in the initial conversations with him. I took him with me despite walkthrough advice, because unlike you I hate having less than 6 party members. And I think he's cool, like Edwin, but totally different. I can't explain that last statement - "Ignus BBuuuuurrnnssss!" They say Nordom has the only ranged weapon in the game, but Ignus' basic attack is also ranged... I'm guessing Nordom is too out-of-place to give additional dialogues. But Vhailor will probably be useful, or at least interesting. I'd take him along, if only for the dialogue. And I wouldn't dump Morte, he has quests, dialogue, and is a kickass fighter with huge damage resistances.
It is possible that more enemies appear in places if you have a larger party, but I'm not sure about this.

 

When TNO dies he'll awake at the closest respawn point (usually some kind of mortuary where his body was brought) with his equipment intact and the party members close to him.
So it's always better to protect party members with TNO, since when they die you'll have to get their stuff and give it back to them.

If you dismiss party members they stay where you dismissed them, you can dismiss and have them reenter again as often as you want or have them wait forever without negative consequences.
You'll only miss special events related to them and you must be able to reenter the area where you left them in order to get them back.

You can solo the game, no party is needed.

After you spoke with Fall From Grace about Morte you can talk to him and find out what he didn't want to tell you.
I strongly recommend keeping him at least until then, there are certain parts in the story before which aren't the same without him. Morte is the party member with the most story related to him.

The little XP you save if you dismiss him before isn't even as useful as his carrying capacity.
His combat power is enormous, he has high damage resistance, special powers which improve, gains grandmastery, can get better teeth and be buffed with strength spells for more damage.

 

TNO is not the standard dual class character. With Annah and Dak'kon in the party you can shift between fighter, mage and thief with a simple dialog option. Only one class is active at a time. You can shift at any time and build xp in that class.

A good hp building strategy is to ensure you take fighter for your first nine levels, for tenth level take thief first, and at eleventh level take mage first -- the only exception is seventh level, you should take that level for the bonuses you want (the strength jump at seventh level can take TNO from 18 straight to 19, any other strength jump requires incremental increases through the exceptional strength spectrum). You should also take the seventh and twelth level bonuses in the same class.

This game is much like Baldur's Gate, the characters interact. Morte is by far the funniest NPC I've encountered in any game I've ever played. He has comments throughout the entire game and nearly all of them are hilarious (I loved "Annah's Pillows" and "The Head of Vecna" dialogs). Often an NPC will give you the opportunity to increase abilities (and xp) through dialog -- having each in your party for a short time is very beneficial. Additional npc's really do not affect how fast you increase levels -- the majority of xp is from quest related xp (which is given to everyone equally), combat related xp (divided equally between party members) only accounts for about a third IIRC. There are no disadvantages to taking a full party.

 

Won't be dumping him then.

Thanks for the advice guys.

I plan on playing levels 1-6 as a Fighter, go to 7 as a Mage, take 8 and 9 as a Fighter, and then either go to 10 as a Mage or 10 as a Thief. After that, I'll probably just stay a Mage.

 

Seems like a good progression. Going to 10 as Thief won't take much extra XP and will give you some interesting extra options with Annah, so it may be worth it.