Going to give BG2 another whirl

In BG2 the demihuman races cannot dual class, only humans can dual class. So your Elf Fighter is going to be an Elf Fighter now and forever. Demihumans have the multiclassing option, so if you want an Elf Fighter/Mage you have to take that from the start.
Corwin can't seem to keep the BG and NWN rules separate

As for the pausing, you can manually pause with the space bar (I think) or you can configure the autopause to activate on certain events, so you can tweak that as you feel the need for it. Once you have a full party you'll probably want to pause more.

Cool, just restarted. Usually I rest my guys after every battle. It seems a bit cumbersome to cast mage armor and stoneskin on Imoen after each rest. However, the pause give orders gameplay makes things a lot more enjoyable. I'm really happy because now I think I can really get into this game. Plus, from what I've heard about this gem, I have an epic adventure in front of me. Some gaming goodness, hehe. Good thing I'm unemployed for the time being.

Is there a way to kick a member off the party? I want more xp hehe.

Yes, you can boot party members but I don't recall how. There's some sort of party management screen somewhere, I think. But I wouldn't worry about XP, you'll get more than enough to level regularly with a full party of six. It's better to have the party members and their resources available rather than a bit of extra xp.
And you do have an epic adventure ahead of you, easily 60+ hours worth.

I just leveled with my human fighter. I want him to be fighter/mage. So, I saved the game. Then I clicked on level up. After I turned level 8 and it didn't give me an option to do level 8 as a mage. The dual-class button is gray. It was gray even before I hit level up. How do I change to mage for this level? Do I have to wait till a certain level?

Go to your character sheet and press "reform party".

And as Gallifey said, only humans can dualclass. And in order to dualclass from fighter to mage, you'll need at least 15 str (no need to put it any higher, just find a strenghtboosting item that will set str to 18+, there are tons of them) and 18 int. Allso aim at 18 in wis (you'll get your hands on a spell called "wish" later on, which is great combined with high wisdom) and 18 in dex (you'll wear armor, you need the ac-bonus). If you don't want to roll (since it's random I allways figured you'd get those values sooner or later, so I didn't want to spend hours on rolling for them) for these values you can allways download a character editor here.

If you play as a kensai, a good level to dual-class on is level 12, since you'll get bonuses every 3:rd or 4:th level (+1 to attack and dmg every 3:rd level for example), this means they're all even on level 12.

Übereil

That sux that you need 15 str to dual class. My stats were

10 str
10 dex
17 con
18 int
14 wisdom
14 charisma

seemed like the highest i could get on reroll. I don't wanna use a trainer. Can someone recommend me a build for the stats for a human fighter/mage. Also, should I start as a mage or fighter? and how often should I change levels for the bonuses?

Originally Posted by Gallifrey
And you do have an epic adventure ahead of you, easily 60+ hours worth.

Heh, took me nearly 100 hours to finish and I didn't even do a lot of the NPC side quests. Loved every minute of it. Been 3 years so I may have to reinstall it sometime soon

You can roll over and over and over untill you get almost perfect stats. Each stat is rolled for individually, so you can end up with all stats ranging from 16 to 18.

As for human warrior that turns into a mage later on, the idea of this build is to get so many buffs you won't take any damage at all, so hitpoints is not as vital as it usually is. I suggest something like this:
Strength: 15
Dexterity: 16
Constitution: 12
Intelligence: 18
Wisdom: 14
Charisma: 10

Those are minimum values, so getting higher is always a good thing. As Übereil mentioned earlier, getting higher Wisdom or Dexterity might be a good idea. Other than that, you can get items that will buff both your strength and charisma to 18+, so those two attributes can be sacrificed as long as they: A) Meet the minimum value, B) Is not your primariy attribute and C) Is not low enough to make you suffer penalties.

The C is not really needed, but in general I don't like penalties.

i'm rerolling right now, just got str 18/61 what does that mean?

18/100 is as high as you can get. 61 is not bad, but 80's-90's is best in a pure fighter. However, for a fighter/mage, that's high--go for it as long as your intelligence is also 18. That's your most important stat.

sweet!!
after about 40 mins of rerolling I got this.

16 str
16 dex
16 con
18 int
14 wis
10 charisma

I saved the game right away. As soon as I get back from austin, I'm pulling an all nighter, hehe. I put 4 stars in long sword and 2 in sword and shield. I love this old school knight skill setup. Please, if there are any drawbacks to the skills I just selected, don't tell me. I wanna play this game with this temp without knowing of any penalties. I've already restarted this game like 15 times. Ite I'm off.

I'd dumped the conc down to 10 and invested up to 18 in dex and wis. Hitpoints will be high enough thanks to you figherlevels, and later on buffs will make sure you'll survive. The extra dex and wis (once again, for the wish spell) will pay of better than 16 in con.

You can't do it once the game has started though, but you COULD download shadowkeeper and alter the values from there. SK is a savegame editor. You can cheat as much as you want to with it. Since you don't want to cheat at all you COULD just go in and edit the stats to what you want them to be as if you'd started out that way. You get the same starting HP with 16 in con as with 10, with 16 con you'll get bonus hp when you level up though.

How did you place your profiencypoints by the way?

Übereil

I would just get started. As a first game there is no point completely maximizing everything. The first part of the game is the only part that is even remotely dull, so get going already, hehe. Those stats are fine, you'll do great.

Maximizing is only actually needed if you're going to solo or 2-man the game. As long as you play it the normal way, the party you put together means more than the actual main character.

Edit: Welcome to the both of you by the way, if I haven't said so already.

Maylander is right, don't spend too much time worrying about stats. Your character doesn't need to be perfect. Just start playing and have fun.

Perfect. Time to let the journey begin.

We once had a discussion about rolling character stats for ROA games.

I, then, insisted that a character could very well be in-perfect - because we all aren't.

I don't want to play an "Über-Hero", I want to play a character.

That's why I liked the "negative attributes" in these games so much - (A)D&D doesn't have any, as far as I know.

Just leveled up as a mage. I have 1 proficiency slot and I want to put it in Quarterstaff, but it won't let me. I already have 1 in Quarterstaff. I'm forced to put that point in dagger or sling or dart. Why can't I put it in Quarterstaff? I'm going to save game, and wait for reply.

Also, I have a question. I'm currently lev 6 mage and lev 7 fighter. I'm currently as a mage, and my THAC0 went from 10 to 19. That sux. Later on, say when I'm lev 12 mage and lev 12 fighter, and let's say I'm doing the lev as a mage, will my THAC0 be lower than 19? Like does it get better? Would it ever be near 10 as a mage?

You ask the hard questions, thartanian You need a reall dnd geek for these. I looked through the manual a bit, and all I can find is :"..a third level fighter has a THACO of 18.." All I can give you is generalities--dual-classing will give you a worse THACO than a pure fighter, but a far better THACO than a pure mage, so it's a compromise. Some things can help your THACO IIRC, like buff spells and weapons with the +1, +2, etc mod.

Quarterstaff is actually a fighter proficiency(I looked it up) so it relies on your fighter levels, not the mage ones--next time you level as a fighter you should be able to put in a point.

Good luck!

Thats the mean thing with dual-classing. Only Warrior-Classes can put two Points in Weapon-Profencies, right now you can only get one point per Weapon-Class. When you get your Mage-Level 8 you get your Fighter-Abilities back (and with them your Fighter Thac0).