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BG1 has some real early-game hell going on if you're not a martial class (Fighter/Paladin/Ranger) because spells are scare and enemies will come thick and fast.

If being a fighter doesn't appeal, that's fine, it just means you should avoid fights as much as possible until you pick up some frontline companions. The advice Gorion gives you to go to the Friendly Arm Inn is extremely good because the companions you meet there are a Fighter and Fighter/Druid who can easily fill the frontline.

The problem is, until then, all you have is a rogue, another Rogue, and da joker babee.

If you're planning on going through BG1 and 2, I do recommend a simpler class (ie. Martial) for your first time through. You'll already be micromanaging 6 party members and sometimes it can be easier to make sure that your character is the one you can rely on to always be useful.

Don't be afraid to crank the difficulty down. It's a game, and it should be a fun experience!

This spoiler free tips guide should help explain some of the weird ADnD concepts that aren't explained too well in game.

As far as spells go - in the early game you're not going to have many casts per day. I tend to focus on using spells that disable or otherwise hinder enemies and leave the damage up to the rest of the crew. If you use something like Grease (or Web later), then you can switch the rest of your party to ranged weapons to plink away at the enemies who can't do much in response.

BG1 is pretty rough until you figure out what you're doing. I'm pretty stoned and not super knowledgeable, but I'll give it a shot!

::: spoiler Really long so I collapsed it

Low level 2nd edition dnd is rough, the first few levels are going to be huge, just because of the increased HP. You won't be getting one shot near as much at lvl 2 or 3. Keep in mind end game is like level 7 or 9 or something for most classes, so each level is really meaningful. There's a setting to max out HP increase on level up, I recommend using that.

EXP gets split between party members, so a smaller party will level up faster. I roll with a party of 4 for that reason, but a party of 6 will get plenty of exp by the end too.

Ranged weapons are OP for low level. Every character except your beefy tank should have a ranged weapon in BG1, and expect your tank to get spanked, lol. Bows if your class allows, and slings if you can't use a bow with proficiency. +1 ranged weapons are pretty cheap and have good chance to hit and damage.

Speaking of that, a Ranger/Cleric is my recommended BG1 build. It was the first build that I was able to get through the whole game with, BG1 and 2. Ranger is good because ranged weapons are just so good in BG1 even if they do fall off in BG2, and the Cleric multi-class will give you spells to play with. Cleric is legitimately super useful itself.

Healing spells are pretty useless during combat, but they're good out of combat. Save your potions for combat, they're quicker to use than casting a spell. When you rest if you have healing spells memorized they'll increase the amount of health you heal, so it's worth having 1 or 2 depending on your party makeup.

Mage spells are a complex system that I don't fully understand. For me, if hitting someone doesn't work I cast various dispels and magic missile on them until hitting them starts working. You may want to look up more info on that system, but that got me through BG1 and 2 pretty much. Enemy mages are going to be some of the toughest enemies, but there's ways to cheese their protections, or if you prepare properly they're a complete joke. If you don't prepare and don't cheese they are going to be incredibly difficult

Thaco is a weird system I'm too stoned to explain properly, but basically the more lower the number the more better and the more negative the number the even more better.

There's a button on the menu, or tab I think on PC, that highlights intractable objects. BG1 and 2 like to hide items in the environment, and the highlight effect is the only way I can find that stuff. On the way from candlekeep to the Friendly Arm Inn there's a tree stump with a useful ring in it. The game really encourages exploration so I don't wanna spoil anymore of them.

An easy build is fighter/rogue half-elf. Make sure everyone has a bow (ranged is op in the early levels). Long swords are a good weapon proficiency given how common they are (magical and + varieties as well).

Basically any multi class is going to be quite powerful once you start getting leveled. The counterbalance is that levels are slower to come by.

If you know the companions you want, taking their class into account helps narrow things down.

If you want to stay Druid, the shapeshifter kit dominates with the werewolf form for quite some time. Late game it transitions to a tank role since the paw attacks are capped at +2. Fighter/Druid already has a companion, but has the advantage of not being as difficult very early on.

Hope some of this helps.

BG1 is very arrow heavy. Plan accordingly and consider characters good with using them. Semi-spoiler warning regarding the final boss and outcome in a vague way:

Also stack up on magic-dispelling arrows. You'll probably need them.

This is for BG1 only and not for BG2:

1. If you're getting owned by mages, you can cheese the game by purposely entering in a door right when the mage casts their spell. The spell will completely whiff. You can keep on cheesing until they run out of spells, which is when you can just bash their face in.

2. Lightning bolt is OP. Lightning bolt also bounces, so if you can bait the enemy into a corner and shoot the lighting bolt at an angle where it would bounce between the two sides of the corner, the enemy would get hit by the same lightning bolt 7+ times.

3. I don't know if the enhanced edition changed anything, but in the OG BG1 that came with 6 CDs, it was very easy to bait the enemy into futilely chasing someone with boots of speed while the rest of your party lights up the enemy with arrows.

4. There's these two OP wands, one that shoots fireballs and one that summons monsters. The shooting fireball one is self-explanatory. The summoning monsters one allows you to cheese by summoning a shitton of cannon fodder while you light up the enemy with arrows.

5. Some of the random encounters, especially the ones where you get ambushed by those fucking thieves with ice arrows, are complete bullshit. Just reload.

Hang on to your fancy underwear.

Joke answer because the tips I see all say more than I could:

Let Boo go for the eyes.

(Also you can cheat in an "arrow of slaying" or whatever they are called - sorry it's been 20 years - but it's a nice "get out of jail free" card if the game is really giving you a hard time. It's okay to just say "fuck this" and not have to deal with an encounter so you can get back to having fun.)