I've been playing a game of Baldurs gate 2 and I think we have gained about 4 or 5 levels. We are looking to introduce another friend to the game. I am not sure what is the best way to do this. Should we

1) Just create a new character (will he level up quickly to our level or will he always lag behind?)
2) Create a new character and artificially level him up where we are (by editing save files or something?)
3) Just give him control of existing in game party members.

Any help you can give is greatly appreciated.

1) He'll always be behind by the amount of XP you've already gained. At some point, this won't be a big deal, as he'll probably only be a partial level behind.

2) You can do this easily by using the in-game console to give the character the amount of XP all the others have. This would be the route I'd go if it were me.

3) I believe you could do this as well, which may be a decent way to ease him in if he's not familiar with the game and the rule set. But as I noted above, option 2 would probably be what I'd choose.

Alternatively, you could install Shadowkeeper and increase his xp using that. I believe you have to edit an ini file to allow cheats before you can use the console, so you might find Shadowkeeper simpler. You just extract it into a folder, run it, select the save file you want to edit, choose the correct party member, and type in the amount of xp you want.

I haven't used the console, though, so I'm not sure how complex it is.

Console's super easy to use (easier than SK, IMO). And I believe it's enabled by default in the GOG version. Basically, you highlight the character you want to give the XP to, hit CTRL+Space, then type in CLUAConsole:SetCurrentXP("xxxxxxx"), where xxxxxxx is the amount of XP you want the character to have. Hit enter twice and you're done.

Thanks everyone.