I tend to name my fighter type Alexander... largely a result of A1's default being philip.
Back in Exile, I would always have a fighter, an archer, a thief (who always used daggers), a mage, a priest and a "sage" (who had all the weird black sheep skills like alchemy, item lore and stuff like that). I always named the sage after myself.
My brother, back in Nethergate, would decorate his house, and always dressed up nicely before meeting the chief.
EDIT: I just remembered. In A2, I would use the hidden Imperial Base as a hide out. After wiping all enemies out, I'd load all the stuff they dropped into crates and push it into the water, and then set things up there to my liking.