Just scanned the familiar abilities.

Highest HP is 24, so you don't want any of them taking damage. That leaves their special abilities. Any personal protective abilities will be ignored, since putting them in your backpack is the best protection.

-Pseudo Dragon doesn't have anything.
-Fairy Dragon brings Invisibility 10' radius, once per day. Not a bad 3rd level spell.
-Ferret brings 75% pick pockets. This could save your thief quite a few skill points, especially if you are willing to reload.
-Rabbit brings 50% Detect traps. You're going to want a much higher Detect Traps, so not much value here.
-Cat brings 99% Stealth. The cat can actually do a decent job scouting. Risk of traps is offset by the 50% magic resistance.
-Imp brings Polymorph. Polymorph self, or polymorph others? Without knowing how this functions, I can't form an opinion.
-Dust Mephit brings Glitterdust. A meh combat spell.
-Quasit brings Horror, which is a decent combat spell in the early stages of your run.

Edit: Eventually your thief will be able to cover Detect Traps, Stealth, and Pick Pockets without problems. Early on, the familiar can help cover the relevant skill until the thief has enough skill points to add to the skill.

You're overthinking and setting yourself up for restartitis. Just play the game.

Sounds like you'll have a great time once you get going. Now, let me throw this at you: what about a divine caster & fighter combo? You can wear full armor (and a shield to boot) and still cast spells, albeit not of the fireballing/nuking variety.

Just some general tips.

1. print out the tables in the manual. They are helpful.
2. Don't rush. Just explore and enjoy the game.
3. Safe often and use more than one save-slot.
4. Don't worry about messing up your build. It won't ruin your character if the character isn't 100% optimized.
5. Trying and failing is a better way to learn than reading guides. Too many guides just adds confusion.
6. Dwarves = the best race.

@DCC: Haha, I'm not changing my mind again. Maybe on another playthrough. I saw indeed that Fighter/Cleric is also a pretty good combo. I just don't usually play clerics. Should try them out though.

@Stig: Thanks, will keep all that in mind.
Pity I'll take an Elf for the Sorceror class, huh? :D

Plenty of good advice in my thread, so I don't feel a need to repeat most of it. Don't worry too much about character stuff; you can still beat the game with a less-than-optimal party without a ton of trouble. Really, as long as you can get a handle on some of the quirks of 2nd Edition AD&D and the Infinity Engine then you'll do just fine. Oh, and quicksave like a lunatic. That's very important.

I guess I'd caution you that the first half of Baldur's Gate 1 is a pretty slow-paced affair, with a lot of wandering around mostly empty wilderness areas as you scrounge for whatever EXP you can find. I kinda love it, but it's not exactly thrills-a-minute.

I can find two threads made by you in this subforum, none of them which are about newbie tips?
Yeah, won't go crazy about min-maxing or anything. Hopefully I'll just enjoy the ride once I start.

Finally created my character. Fingers crossed I won't get in any mod trouble. Onwards now, the journey awaits...!
(first I gotta get through the tutorial monks though lol)

Thanks again to everyone =)

Ah, I accidentally wrote "my" instead of "this." That's embarrassing.

Don't forget to pray to they mod pantheon. You don't want to piss them off.

Have fun !

One advice: Don't try to be perfect. Play your game. It's not bad if you miss some content or kick out powerful but annoying party members.

I'm trying, I'm trying. Main problem is to get some gear now so my folks don't get killed so quickly. Bears are quite dangerous.
Instead of roaming around with the folks I just met I'm going after the ones my foster daddy told me about, since I'm pretty sure I'm going to stick with those.

Bears are considered too powerful for level 1 characters to fight so if you're able to defeat them you're doing exceptionally well.

It sounds like you already started up, but I wanted to throw a few thoughts out there.

I don't know how the kensai gets such a bad wrap, I played through both games with one and never had issues. There are plenty of armor spells, even an amulet that allows its wearer to cast Shield. By the end of BG:EE he had -5 AC using the amulet, and -9 using Potions of Defense. He also was responsible for 41% of my kills. Shoot, by ToB he had a resting AC of -4, putting him at -14 with a Potion of Defense.

Also, I'm surprised no one threw out the option of taking 3 levels in fighter and dualling to mage. It's not about maximizing both classes for the long haul, but about adding versatility to what will effectively be a pure class mage (you can even still reach max level as a mage in BG1). For a few short levels in fighter you can have 18/** strength score, 24 extra HP, helmets and shields, grand mastery in any weapon, and a slightly better base thac0. Oh, plus access to a few fighter specific items. I'd keep him in the back throwing daggers and using a big shield in between spells (daggers get STR bonuses and have 2 APR like bows). You could technically even make him a berserker since they can use throwing axes and throwing daggers.