Once you re-activate your previous class you gain the best armor usage and weapon usage available for both (unless one class specifically forbids it, like druids and clerics duals can ONLY use druid or cleric weapons and lose any proficiencies spent in illegal weapon types (well..they're still there but you can't equip the weapons to use them), or something like a Kensai that prevents wearing any armor at all, even while you're still leveling the new class). So in that example, once you hit 4 in mage, you could spent any further points in theif weapons or weapon styles (which mages don't get) rather then mage weapons (which are moot since thieves can use all those and more).
Not sure if it works in this version, but in Baldur's Gate 2, if you held your level up till you could instantly reactivate your abilities, you could spend proficiencies on things like weapon specialization (assuming your base was capable of that). While in regular bladur's gate you could spent points in any weapon usable, but couldn't go beyond * unless the 2nd class could specialize.
Can someone confirm that thought on re-activating? Most parts of BG2 is easy enough to let the NPCs do your dirty work for you if you decide to delay reactivating until doing so would bring back your original abilities. If you then are able to spend all the newly gained proficiencies with full selection range, except of course the ones you chose when you became a lvl 1 mage or thief or what ever, that could potentially be quite awesome. Here it can be useful to plan ahead so that you put those starting proficiencies in something useful that you didn't already cover. -- but it might not really be all that much fun doing nothing with your PC for quite a bit of time.
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Not sure if it works in this version, but in Baldur's Gate 2, if you held your level up till you could instantly reactivate your abilities, you could spend proficiencies on things like weapon specialization (assuming your base was capable of that). While in regular bladur's gate you could spent points in any weapon usable, but couldn't go beyond * unless the 2nd class could specialize.