I've found that it gets... easier to bulldoze my way through. I know where everything is, I know which quests need to be done before which other quests, and I know which quests are "important" (by my standards) and which can be ignored.
I have a standard party of Gale + Astarion + Halsin + (via mod) whoever else might be relevant to whatever I'm doing. It's nice to have Jaheira and Minsc around, they've got a lot to say.
