If you don't like the villain cause he's overdone and his armor is silly, that's to bad, but I think you'll really like the bg2 villain. He's a smart villain(e.i. His minions have clear face masks on their helmets, he doesn't explain his entire evil plot to you right off, and his air vents are not big enough to climb through:)
It seems the game is not for you... Believe me I have had some similar feelings after playing some games that were highly recommended to me but I just couldn't get into.
Not every game is going to strike everyone's fancy. I doubt it has anything do with your abilities as a gamer or how smart you are globally. If you change your mind later the door is always open, and we'll leave the light on for you. Enjoy your other gaming!
@InvictusCobra, I don't think there is anything we could tell you that would change your mind at this point, so I'd personally recommend that you simply stop playing. It's simply not enjoyable for you, and there's nothing wrong with that. I'm a huge Forgotten Realms fan who bought the game the day it came out, but I actually didn't enjoy it either the first time I played it. Others on this forum don't like Skyrim or Dragon Age: Origins, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed and thought were excellent games. Sometimes it's just not the right time for a game, and you begin to like it much more after a second try.
I do think you should revisit Baldur's Gate at some point in the future, and there are some things you could do to make it easier and more enjoyable when that time comes:
1: Read some of the D&D novels, particularly Salvatore's Drizzt series and the Avatar series. They aren't stellar examples of literature, but they do offer a good introduction to the Forgotten Realms that will make the world more appealing. The Avatar series in particular sets the stage for the game's plot.
2: Read articles on the Forgotten Realms Wiki and other related sites to get a feel for the D&D world and creatures. (Just don't read any game spoilers!)
3: Play through the Black Pits and experiment with different classes and strategies, while also learning more about the game system (particularly the pause function if you're having difficulty with battles).
The bottom line is that you don't seem to enjoy the open-endedness and micromanagement of Baldur's Gate, and I thus doubt that anything we could say would change your experience right now. Learn more about both and try again in a few months.
@meagloth in his defence, his gear isnt necessarily what he WANTS to wear, its magical.
Also, his face teeth offer great breathability while preventing most face injuries. Other than crazy weight (18/00 should have a serious bullneck, so weight wouldnt matter much), the helm is more practical than many helms I've seen. About the best were the Roman legionaires. I feel the apologist.
Everyone has already said most of what I would have, but just to reiterate:
1.) Don't worry a ton about Thaco and AC....all you need to know is that you want them to be as LOW as possible, preferably negative numbers.
2.) Bracers generally do nothing for any characters who are wearing armor, don't even put them on those classes. Save them for Mages, Monks, or Kensai. If you get Gauntlets, put them on your melee fighters.
3.) Don't think of this game in terms of any other RPG you have played. The numbers aren't going to skyrocket out of control. Even an improvement of ONE in any category is a massive upgrade to get excited about.
4.) Your Mages aren't just there to fling out damage like everyone has become accustomed to. Yes, spellcasters can be heavy hitters, but in BG they are there to control the battlefield and buff your other characters.
5.). When in doubt, save. When in doubt, pause the game. No hard fight is won without pausing constantly.
Again, this has all been said, and yes, AD & D can be pretty intimidating when you dive right in. Eventually once you know what you are looking at you realize how rewarding all the stats can feel (sometimes I just sit there are look at my character sheets). The above mentioned guides on Gamefaqs and Elminster's are great resources, but I would also read the entire guide on Playithardcore. It is technically written for more serious metagaming but it breaks down nearly everything important in a way even a neophyte can understand.
Edit: Seems the original poster has given up, however if he or anyone else ever needs a intro the the world of Baldur's Gate, I forgot about the be all/end all of sites for a beginner....Volothamp's Comeuppance. Spend a couple hrs on it and you will have just taken a Masters course in the world of the Sword Coast.
@meagloth in his defence, his gear isnt necessarily what he WANTS to wear, its magical.
Also, his face teeth offer great breathability while preventing most face injuries. Other than crazy weight (18/00 should have a serious bullneck, so weight wouldnt matter much), the helm is more practical than many helms I've seen. About the best were the Roman legionaires. I feel the apologist.
It's really not so bad. It's just a normal suit of armor with a customized evil-edition helmet and some spikes welded on. I've seen worse
@meagloth in his defence, his gear isnt necessarily what he WANTS to wear, its magical.
Also, his face teeth offer great breathability while preventing most face injuries. Other than crazy weight (18/00 should have a serious bullneck, so weight wouldnt matter much), the helm is more practical than many helms I've seen. About the best were the Roman legionaires. I feel the apologist.
It's really not so bad. It's just a normal suit of armor with a customized evil-edition helmet and some spikes welded on. I've seen worse
The disturbing part is that it had so much 'wow!' back then, now he's relatively bland. But he's still as big as an ogre!
From what I gather from OP's messages, the issue is enjoyment rather than difficulty...
To my mind, the best way to combat that would probably be to adopt a heavy Role Playing approach... Get into your character, find out who he/she is and then meet each situation with that person in mind.
Forget the "optimum route", just talk to everyone and decide whether this person would make your character want to be cheeky, or earnest, or highly stabby... (And save often so you don't back yourself into a corner!)
Otherwise, you're basically just pushing pixels around the screen.
Ok, first of all, thanks for all the tips and help, but if I may be allowed to get something about this game off my chest/confess, here goes (sorry if I ofend anyone who really loves the game):
Since this Saturday, at 10pm, when I installed and began playing this game, nothing game related has been fun. Absolutely nothing. I try to play it, spend an hour tops and then quit, either frustrated or bored and just feel like sitting in a corner muttering “No more,please no more”. I try to play any other game/genre, I can't have fun because I feel that I should be playing this and am not a true gamer if I don't play this. All different games I try just make me rage more. My friends say it's because I'm too dumb for D&D and/or that I'm too much of a noob for it's difficulty. I went to the Steam forums, BG's Reddit and here. The 2nd and 3rd were nice to me and a bit helpful, but the game never became actually fun. It's not that it's battles are very hard (that I can handle), it's just that the game was never able to make me care about the characters or it's story and I can't take the villain seriously (wtf is wrong with that helmet of his?).
Now I have two options: Just bear this and play the game until the end while cursing it and the world,hoping I might start enjoying it by the end and play BGII, or just say "Fuck it" and kick it so hard off my PC it will reach space and leave me with a smile on my face.Honestly, the second one sounds much more enticing.
Overall, this game has not been fun for me. I though I might be in for a great game and adventure but, alas the only thing that came out of me playing this game was endless frustration and rage and finding out that I hate it and D&D with a blazing passion. I do not know if I will ever touch this again and if I offended any fan of BG and D&D in the process, I am truly sorry. Thank you for reading and have fun playing this game, because I sure won't.At least for now and in the near future.
Before you quit entirely (because it looks like it), Try BGII:EE. I played them out of order and it was compelling. I agree BG is REALLY slow and not compelling in the narrative till ~when you get into Baldur's Gate itself.
Roll up and play BGII:EE up until the first "night" after you visit the slums (that'll make sense when you do it). That should give you enough compelling story set up to get you hooked.
EDIT: So that's more quantifiable - that's no more than ~2 hours for a new player, assuming you micro-pause like I do and micromanage carrying around junk like the polearms mobs drop for selling outside the dungeon (yes, I'm anal retentive - waste not want not).
@InvictusCobra, just one more comment if you are still looking in: I commend you for your sophistication and maturity in making "I" statements about your personal experience of the go you had, rather than ranting "this game sucks."
All right. I'm only gonna say one more thing. Do the basilisks, get them level, pound through cloakwood as fast as you can. Once you finish all that, you can finally get into the big city. This is where the plot really gets going. If that doesn't interest you, either go for bg2, or quit if you feel it isn't worth the money.
Somewhat OT, but do you remember when BG and IWD came out and the big debate was BG vs. Morrowind? Man, those were the days. I'll say this for Bethesda: I think Oblivion has aged well. I tend to run through BG/BG2, then get tired of the isometric thing and do a run-through of Oblivion (Morroblivion, to be precise). It's refreshing to jump into that full 3D world, with updated graphics on a new computer, with a crap-ton of mods.
Then I get tired of magic and swords, so I run through Fallout 3/NV (TTW). Then I get tired of 3D and play a couple rounds of Civ. Then I get tired of so much abstraction and load up BG. Etc., etc. The cycle takes a year or two (I don't have much time for gaming); these are pretty much the only four games I've played in the last 6-8 years. (I haven't even played Skyrim!) Pathetic?
not really, my cycle goes:
%some new game that got my interest briefly% (variable:it was Diablo II back in the day, then the Quake series, then Dungeons and Dragons Online for a while till they Turbined it from space, then it was Guild Wars2 - never got into Evercrack or WoW, thankfully)
Well, after going to bed and thinking I wasn't gonna let this game bring me down, I decided to boot it up and start fresh. This time it would be different. So I thought about what to play and all that and came to the conclusion of screwing micromanagement, party choiches and XP sharing. I'm going to be a lone wolf and fly solo.After making a character, she turned out like this:
Gender:Female Race:Elf Class:Fighter/Thief Alignment:Neutral Good
Proficiencies Move Silently:15 Find Traps:30 Pick Pockets:20 Open Locks:20 Hide in Shadows:15 Detect Illusions:0 Set Traps:0
Weapon Proficiencies: Long Sword+ Shortbow+ Two-Weapon Style++
I'll try doing it solo, but I'm not sure about multiclassing and just did a Fighter/Thief due to a friend's advice on traps. Should I change anything or go with the character as she stands? Thanks for the help and support you gave me in this thread
Well, after going to bed and thinking I wasn't gonna let this game bring me down, I decided to boot it up and start fresh. This time it would be different. So I thought about what to play and all that and came to the conclusion of screwing micromanagement, party choiches and XP sharing. I'm going to be a lone wolf and fly solo.After making a character, she turned out like this:
Gender:Female Race:Elf Class:Fighter/Thief Alignment:Neutral Good
Proficiencies Move Silently:15 Find Traps:30 Pick Pockets:20 Open Locks:20 Hide in Shadows:15 Detect Illusions:0 Set Traps:0
Weapon Proficiencies: Long Sword+ Shortbow+ Two-Weapon Style++
I'll try doing it solo, but I'm not sure about multiclassing and just did a Fighter/Thief due to a friend's advice on traps. Should I change anything or go with the character as she stands? Thanks for the help and support you gave me in this thread
You're gonna want to reroll one more time, imo. Here's why:
1.) You don't need a full party to micromanage, but you should at least have a fighter up front and a cleric to help you out. I would SUGGEST just going with Jaheira and Khalid (they are at the first inn you are directed to).
2.) You are gonna want to reroll your stats. There is nothing wrong with playing a Fighter/Thief, but Charisma is a dump stat that you don't need anywhere near that high on all but one character. Put as much as you can in Dex, Strength and Constitution. As a Fighter/Thief you can bring down your Intelligence and Wisdom to sub-10 and pump all the rest of the points into the more useful stats. Your Charisma probably doesn't need to be over 10 or 12 either.
3.) As for your proficiencies, Long Sword and Shortbow are solid, but you only want Two-weapon style if you are planning on dual-wielding, and I'm assuming that isn't the case. You will want to just take single-weapon style in that case, as two-weapon is doing nothing for you if you aren't dual-wielding.
4.) I should mention that if you are having trouble with micromanaging, it would be helpful (and really this should be done anyway) to go into your NPC's character screens and change their scripts (which are what they do as a default action in most situations). For instance, you can direct a character to attack from range and only switch to melee if attacked close up, or direct a fighter to be aggressive and attack the first thing he sees. There are at least 4 different AI scripts for each type of class, and I think they would help with your micromanaging immensely. I know I could barely get a grip on battles before I found them.
If you were finding it frustratingly hard with a party playing solo will not help: it's harder. What struck me from the earlier posts is very little mention of ranged weapons, which are the real key to playing BG1. You need, as a beginner, a full party with every member, or all but a specialist tank who is carrying a shield, equipped with ranged weapons. There's a military strategy side to BG1: you need to soften up enemies with ranged weapons, keep weaker party members back away from the enemy and only have your tough fighters go hand to hand while clerics heal and mages cast crowd control spells - 'Sleep' can handle most groups of enemies you'll run into in the game. The surest way to wipe out your party in BG1 is to have them all charge in and fight hand to hand, so give mages a sling and don't let them near the enemy, have your thief shoot arrows - don't have everyone up close and getting hit. Sorry but solo you're only making it tougher for yourself. It's an option for advanced players.
I'd dump the two pips in two-weapon style for now and put two in bow and sword (actually, for this character you might want to consider quarter staff instead of any sword).
Your scores also aren't great. For a fighter thief I'd max out dex and const. Then extra points go to strength and charisma.
Also for what it's worth, I think its a mistake to solo first try. The "simplicity" of less party management is offset by a much weaker "party". Many experienced players will do a solo challenge; but that's just it, it's a challenge. D&D is designed around four main classes (fighter, thief, Mage, cleric). The game will be easiest with a balanced party that can do any of those four main functions. If I were to design a minimalist, simple party; I would say create a half-elven cleric/Mage, recruit Imoen, then recruit Ajantis (the map north of Friendly Arm Inn) or Kivan (High Hedge map). Hmmm, actually that's sounding like something fun to do....
Well, after going to bed and thinking I wasn't gonna let this game bring me down, I decided to boot it up and start fresh. This time it would be different. So I thought about what to play and all that and came to the conclusion of screwing micromanagement, party choiches and XP sharing. I'm going to be a lone wolf and fly solo.After making a character, she turned out like this:
Gender:Female Race:Elf Class:Fighter/Thief Alignment:Neutral Good
Proficiencies Move Silently:15 Find Traps:30 Pick Pockets:20 Open Locks:20 Hide in Shadows:15 Detect Illusions:0 Set Traps:0
Weapon Proficiencies: Long Sword+ Shortbow+ Two-Weapon Style++
I'll try doing it solo, but I'm not sure about multiclassing and just did a Fighter/Thief due to a friend's advice on traps. Should I change anything or go with the character as she stands? Thanks for the help and support you gave me in this thread
I assume you're talking BGI...
Classes are subjective, but that's not a bad one for a new player. I went swashbuckler kit because I wanted a lot of the benefits you have in your fighter half, but cared a little less about charname using traps in early game than most folk.
Race-wise you should consider your elven-ness if you're already frustrated. She won't be as squishy as a mage, but that CON penalty will still be visible to you unless you stick to shortbow for a few levels. Don't go ham on melee till you get some good armor and some HP built up and you'll be fine.
Here's another thing I learned quickly that changes everything. Give your back line players who can't take big hits and don't wear armor some sort of ranged weapon, and set it as their default. In many cases this might just be slings and bullets. That may sound trivial, but for most of the original Baldur's Gate, they are actually highly effective tools that keep you ranged characters out of danger and every single hit point is actually a big deal in this game. A simple extra flung bullet can mean the difference in a battle.
since spending 2h searching for Brage or any other thing/quest for that matter isn't exploration or fun, it's a waste of time.
I think this might be part of the problem. A significant portion of the game is all about exploring. If you get easily frustrated and simply go look it up, you've lost the reason why this game is so much superior to the 'on the rails' type RPG games that we have today.
Without having read the entire thread to see what other advice is given, here's mine.
Start over with a Fighter. Max out STRENGTH, but otherwise just play around with stats till you get what you like. select Long Sword as weapon proficiency and Bow. That's pretty standard and you can't go wrong with it. Strike out, just like Gorion sets you up to do. After leaving the keep, head north and pick up Khalid and Jaheira. Then go south and pick up Minsc and Dynhear, which should give you an extremely balanced six (including Imoen) party members.
Then just explore every map you encounter. Or, if you don't want to just pound the ground, simply do the Mines and then follow the main story from there. don't feel that you need to finish every single quest and find every single item (that obsession will come later once you have fallen in love with the game). Just strike out and see what there is to see. If you get bored with an area, move on. Let the game be a wonder, not a chore.
Well, no wonder you're having a hard time. Those stats are terrible. You need to max strength, constitution, and dexterity. You don't actually need *any* charisma, intelligence, or wisdom, especially for bg1.
@InvictusCobra your starts are distributed fine in theory, but older dnd editions gave little/no combat bonus' until you get a really high stat. For a fighter theif, I would get 18/xx strength (higher xx is better, 00 best, and very good), max dexterity, and cons at least 16, but 18 is better for your first game.
High charisma is nice, but you can put an NPC in front too, and they will use their charisma.
I wouldnt do a solo just yet, but the game is easier for sure if you do some grinding early vs basilisks with a smaller party. NPC can start up to lvl 6, though thief NPCs tend to be awful for distribution. But if you are level 4 or 5, cloakwoods will be much easier. Feel free to ask for tactical advice; the grognards here will be happy to give you stuff to try.
@InvictusCobra your starts are distributed fine in theory, but older dnd editions gave little/no combat bonus' until you get a really high stat. For a fighter theif, I would get 18/xx strength (higher xx is better, 00 best, and very good), max dexterity, and cons at least 16, but 18 is better for your first game..
Yeah, with a friend's advice in mind too, I rerolled and got 18/52 Strength, 19 Dexterity, 17 Constitution, 10 Intelligence, 4 Wisdom, and 18 Charisma. Only proficiency I changed was from Short to Longbow.
May i suggest something? Why don't you play online multplayer? There are many good people around, they can show you stuff and help you overcome obstacles...
@InvictusCobra your starts are distributed fine in theory, but older dnd editions gave little/no combat bonus' until you get a really high stat. For a fighter theif, I would get 18/xx strength (higher xx is better, 00 best, and very good), max dexterity, and cons at least 16, but 18 is better for your first game..
Yeah, with a friend's advice in mind too, I rerolled and got 18/52 Strength, 19 Dexterity, 17 Constitution, 10 Intelligence, 4 Wisdom, and 18 Charisma. Only proficiency I changed was from Short to Longbow.
May i suggest something? Why don't you play online multplayer? There are many good people around, they can show you stuff and help you overcome obstacles...
I wouldn't recommend this. Multiplayer is buggy, and hard to set up regardless.
@InvivtusCobra, Glad you're gonna hang in there! I kind of have to agree with others that soloing the first time out will actually be tougher.
The key to micromanaging a party of six is to just pause a lot and take your time letting the battle unfold very slowly by frequently pausing and unpausing. The main reasons for pausing are to make your spellcasters to fire off their spells or wands, and to use healing potions. Or maybe to move a meleer to help another who is struggling.
I know you're getting flooded with advice, and hopefully you can take it all in without your eyes glazing over. But FWIW here's a thread I made a long time ago about basic tactics:
Well, no wonder you're having a hard time. Those stats are terrible. You need to max strength, constitution, and dexterity. You don't actually need *any* charisma, intelligence, or wisdom, especially for bg1.
Um???? No. You don't. what is being described is a MIN/MAX and is not in any shape or form "Necessary" to have fun.
Yes, "High" strength. Sure high CON is nice to have. MIN/MAX is NOT a requirement to play or have fun.
Comments
Not every game is going to strike everyone's fancy. I doubt it has anything do with your abilities as a gamer or how smart you are globally. If you change your mind later the door is always open, and we'll leave the light on for you. Enjoy your other gaming!
I do think you should revisit Baldur's Gate at some point in the future, and there are some things you could do to make it easier and more enjoyable when that time comes:
1: Read some of the D&D novels, particularly Salvatore's Drizzt series and the Avatar series. They aren't stellar examples of literature, but they do offer a good introduction to the Forgotten Realms that will make the world more appealing. The Avatar series in particular sets the stage for the game's plot.
2: Read articles on the Forgotten Realms Wiki and other related sites to get a feel for the D&D world and creatures. (Just don't read any game spoilers!)
3: Play through the Black Pits and experiment with different classes and strategies, while also learning more about the game system (particularly the pause function if you're having difficulty with battles).
The bottom line is that you don't seem to enjoy the open-endedness and micromanagement of Baldur's Gate, and I thus doubt that anything we could say would change your experience right now. Learn more about both and try again in a few months.
Also, his face teeth offer great breathability while preventing most face injuries. Other than crazy weight (18/00 should have a serious bullneck, so weight wouldnt matter much), the helm is more practical than many helms I've seen. About the best were the Roman legionaires. I feel the apologist.
1.) Don't worry a ton about Thaco and AC....all you need to know is that you want them to be as LOW as possible, preferably negative numbers.
2.) Bracers generally do nothing for any characters who are wearing armor, don't even put them on those classes. Save them for Mages, Monks, or Kensai. If you get Gauntlets, put them on your melee fighters.
3.) Don't think of this game in terms of any other RPG you have played. The numbers aren't going to skyrocket out of control. Even an improvement of ONE in any category is a massive upgrade to get excited about.
4.) Your Mages aren't just there to fling out damage like everyone has become accustomed to. Yes, spellcasters can be heavy hitters, but in BG they are there to control the battlefield and buff your other characters.
5.). When in doubt, save. When in doubt, pause the game. No hard fight is won without pausing constantly.
Again, this has all been said, and yes, AD & D can be pretty intimidating when you dive right in. Eventually once you know what you are looking at you realize how rewarding all the stats can feel (sometimes I just sit there are look at my character sheets). The above mentioned guides on Gamefaqs and Elminster's are great resources, but I would also read the entire guide on Playithardcore. It is technically written for more serious metagaming but it breaks down nearly everything important in a way even a neophyte can understand.
Edit: Seems the original poster has given up, however if he or anyone else ever needs a intro the the world of Baldur's Gate, I forgot about the be all/end all of sites for a beginner....Volothamp's Comeuppance. Spend a couple hrs on it and you will have just taken a Masters course in the world of the Sword Coast.
To my mind, the best way to combat that would probably be to adopt a heavy Role Playing approach... Get into your character, find out who he/she is and then meet each situation with that person in mind.
Forget the "optimum route", just talk to everyone and decide whether this person would make your character want to be cheeky, or earnest, or highly stabby...
(And save often so you don't back yourself into a corner!)
Otherwise, you're basically just pushing pixels around the screen.
Roll up and play BGII:EE up until the first "night" after you visit the slums (that'll make sense when you do it). That should give you enough compelling story set up to get you hooked.
EDIT: So that's more quantifiable - that's no more than ~2 hours for a new player, assuming you micro-pause like I do and micromanage carrying around junk like the polearms mobs drop for selling outside the dungeon (yes, I'm anal retentive - waste not want not).
%some new game that got my interest briefly% (variable:it was Diablo II back in the day, then the Quake series, then Dungeons and Dragons Online for a while till they Turbined it from space, then it was Guild Wars2 - never got into Evercrack or WoW, thankfully)
Civ III or IV (never really got into V)
BG and/or BGII
repeat
Gender:Female
Race:Elf
Class:Fighter/Thief
Alignment:Neutral Good
Strength:15
Dexterity:14
Constitution:13
Intelligence:13
Wisdom:13
Charisma:18
Proficiencies
Move Silently:15
Find Traps:30
Pick Pockets:20
Open Locks:20
Hide in Shadows:15
Detect Illusions:0
Set Traps:0
Weapon Proficiencies:
Long Sword+
Shortbow+
Two-Weapon Style++
I'll try doing it solo, but I'm not sure about multiclassing and just did a Fighter/Thief due to a friend's advice on traps. Should I change anything or go with the character as she stands? Thanks for the help and support you gave me in this thread
1.) You don't need a full party to micromanage, but you should at least have a fighter up front and a cleric to help you out. I would SUGGEST just going with Jaheira and Khalid (they are at the first inn you are directed to).
2.) You are gonna want to reroll your stats. There is nothing wrong with playing a Fighter/Thief, but Charisma is a dump stat that you don't need anywhere near that high on all but one character. Put as much as you can in Dex, Strength and Constitution. As a Fighter/Thief you can bring down your Intelligence and Wisdom to sub-10 and pump all the rest of the points into the more useful stats. Your Charisma probably doesn't need to be over 10 or 12 either.
3.) As for your proficiencies, Long Sword and Shortbow are solid, but you only want Two-weapon style if you are planning on dual-wielding, and I'm assuming that isn't the case. You will want to just take single-weapon style in that case, as two-weapon is doing nothing for you if you aren't dual-wielding.
4.) I should mention that if you are having trouble with micromanaging, it would be helpful (and really this should be done anyway) to go into your NPC's character screens and change their scripts (which are what they do as a default action in most situations). For instance, you can direct a character to attack from range and only switch to melee if attacked close up, or direct a fighter to be aggressive and attack the first thing he sees. There are at least 4 different AI scripts for each type of class, and I think they would help with your micromanaging immensely. I know I could barely get a grip on battles before I found them.
The surest way to wipe out your party in BG1 is to have them all charge in and fight hand to hand, so give mages a sling and don't let them near the enemy, have your thief shoot arrows - don't have everyone up close and getting hit.
Sorry but solo you're only making it tougher for yourself. It's an option for advanced players.
Your scores also aren't great. For a fighter thief I'd max out dex and const. Then extra points go to strength and charisma.
Also for what it's worth, I think its a mistake to solo first try. The "simplicity" of less party management is offset by a much weaker "party". Many experienced players will do a solo challenge; but that's just it, it's a challenge. D&D is designed around four main classes (fighter, thief, Mage, cleric). The game will be easiest with a balanced party that can do any of those four main functions.
If I were to design a minimalist, simple party; I would say create a half-elven cleric/Mage, recruit Imoen, then recruit Ajantis (the map north of Friendly Arm Inn) or Kivan (High Hedge map). Hmmm, actually that's sounding like something fun to do....
I assume you're talking BGI...
Classes are subjective, but that's not a bad one for a new player. I went swashbuckler kit because I wanted a lot of the benefits you have in your fighter half, but cared a little less about charname using traps in early game than most folk.
Race-wise you should consider your elven-ness if you're already frustrated. She won't be as squishy as a mage, but that CON penalty will still be visible to you unless you stick to shortbow for a few levels. Don't go ham on melee till you get some good armor and some HP built up and you'll be fine.
Without having read the entire thread to see what other advice is given, here's mine.
Start over with a Fighter. Max out STRENGTH, but otherwise just play around with stats till you get what you like. select Long Sword as weapon proficiency and Bow. That's pretty standard and you can't go wrong with it. Strike out, just like Gorion sets you up to do. After leaving the keep, head north and pick up Khalid and Jaheira. Then go south and pick up Minsc and Dynhear, which should give you an extremely balanced six (including Imoen) party members.
Then just explore every map you encounter. Or, if you don't want to just pound the ground, simply do the Mines and then follow the main story from there. don't feel that you need to finish every single quest and find every single item (that obsession will come later once you have fallen in love with the game). Just strike out and see what there is to see. If you get bored with an area, move on. Let the game be a wonder, not a chore.
High charisma is nice, but you can put an NPC in front too, and they will use their charisma.
I wouldnt do a solo just yet, but the game is easier for sure if you do some grinding early vs basilisks with a smaller party. NPC can start up to lvl 6, though thief NPCs tend to be awful for distribution. But if you are level 4 or 5, cloakwoods will be much easier. Feel free to ask for tactical advice; the grognards here will be happy to give you stuff to try.
The key to micromanaging a party of six is to just pause a lot and take your time letting the battle unfold very slowly by frequently pausing and unpausing. The main reasons for pausing are to make your spellcasters to fire off their spells or wands, and to use healing potions. Or maybe to move a meleer to help another who is struggling.
I know you're getting flooded with advice, and hopefully you can take it all in without your eyes glazing over. But FWIW here's a thread I made a long time ago about basic tactics:
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/5111/tactics-101-not-supposed-to-but-probably-will-contain-spoilers/p1
Hope it helps. Every player's playstyle is different, and there's many ways to succeed strategically. So it's just one man's advice.
Yes, "High" strength. Sure high CON is nice to have. MIN/MAX is NOT a requirement to play or have fun.