Is any kit or class a "must have"?
I know it's great to have a thief for disarm traps and lock picks. A cleric or druid provide healing.
Besides those, are there any other "must have(s)"?
Besides those, are there any other "must have(s)"?
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Fighter
Cleric
Mage
Thief
HOW you fill these roles is up to you. If you can disarm all the traps like a stick disarms a bear trap and cast knock on all the locked things, you've filled the Thief role. Doesn't matter you didn't take a thief to do it.
The game is static. There are things have have to be done and trials to overcome. It doesn't matter HOW you do it, but you need to do it. If you can ignore traps because you have enough health, they're dealt with. If you take a thief to disarm them, they are also dealt with.
Let's call them: the cook, the thief, his wife and her lover.
How to fill these slots: that's the great art of this game.
It just isn't a adventure without one.
Khalid, Jaheira, Ajantis, and somewhat Montaron are all possible tanks for you right out of the gate. You'll have more options later on.
You can get through the whole game without a mage or a cleric, it's not recommended, but it's do-able. You can get through most of the game without a thief, although end game traps will kill anyone with less than 80 hp and beware bouncing lightning bolt traps.
The tank on the other hand, will be the difference between constant frustration and constant leveling.
How many of those roles be filled by multiclasses? As you've said, for example, the tank can be a F/D. Can, for example, the Cleric and the Mage be rolled into a C/M?
Oh, seems to have gone off a bit into a tangent there. My mistake!
Essential class = any class that can cast Heal and/or wear plate-mail or better armour. You are fragile at levels 1-5 and you need big sheets of metal to keep away all the terrible things that want to murder you horribly.
It's easier to answer the question "what class do I *not* need?", and that answer would probably begin with "bard", and end with "druid".
Fighter-Thief is also a very solid choice with good long-game prospects. Fighter-mage; also good. Kensai-mage: positively game-breaking (but that's a dual class and I really shouldn't have mentioned it because they are shameful in their cheese-factor). Fighter-cleric and thief-cleric are also both possible and very useful in what they bring to the party.
Though having at least one each of the classical four archetypes would make things smoother. A Warrior, a thief, a mage, a cleric, and a jack of all trades bard to round things out...well and one token evil team mate since things get a little boring without a little inter-party conflict.
The closest thing to "must have" is a thief, because disarming traps is essential to survival, usually.
While you don't necessarily need any particular archetype (you can successfully solo with most classes, after all), I think for convenience's sake, you want a tank, a thief, and a healer. Mages are wonderfully powerful, and I wouldn't consider making a party without one under normal circumstances, but there's nothing they provide that you can't replace with enough applied damage/healing (at least in BG1, where the mage defenses aren't capable of completely shutting your attackers down).
That said, I wouldn't say that any of those roles require a dedicated, single class character. Anything multiclassed with a fighter with good Con will have both the HP and the ability to use heavy armor that enables them to tank, and there's enough experience to be had early on in quests that don't involve locks/traps that a multiclass thief has time to build those skills up. Multiclass mages and clerics/druids get enough spells to fill those needs without having to be single-classed, especially if you use memorization aids like the Ring of Wizardry and the Ring of Holiness.
Blade works as a arcane caster with godly fighting abilities in the late game.
I personally dont find clerics all that usefull so i would go with druid instead (insect spells are godly).
Then there is the thief. This role isn't needed if you have know the game well enough or if you are willing to reload more often. There isn't that much to miss if you can't open all containers and there is still the knock spell if you want to open something and if you know where the traps are they aren't so much a problem anymore. So the main draw that is left is someone that can backstab. Swashbucklers are also great fighters which can get better than real fighters especially at high levels.
Then you have the cleric. He can be replaced by a druid. They are useful for their buffs. The healing is only good at low levels inside of combat or when you have access to level 5 spells for heal. You need one simply because resting until healed takes days without one. Note that druids don't get a resurrection spell with Jaheira being the exception.
THen we have mages. They are needed for attack spells and croud controll/disabling stuff. They also have some buffs.