I'm new to Baldur's Gate 2 (and a lot of these classic CRPGs in general). I've never played a game before where you have to roll your stats like this. I looked around for some builds when starting, but got sick of rolling after a while and settled for this:

Paladin - Undead Hunter

STR: 17
DEX: 16
CON: 16
INT: 11
WIS: 13
CHA: 17

I'm a few hours into the game, and just curious if this build will get me through the game? If it might get me into serious trouble later on, I'd consider starting a new game and just being more patient with rolling the right stats. For you BG2 veterans out there: think this build will get me through, or should I try again?

Thanks for your help!

You have rolled a 90, and that is good in anybody's books. There is absolutely nothing wrong with your paladin, and he/she will get you through the game without any bother. For comparison, there is a paladin npc in-game with the following stats:
17 Str
9 Dex
17 Con
12 Int
16 Wis
18 Cha

A paladin is actually one of the hardest classes to roll for because of their minimum requirements. They have no real dump stat. So you did good. Go with it. Not for a paladin you can't. Nonsense. An 18/00 would be nice, but with the difficulty of rolling decent stats for a paladin, it's almost unobtainable without either cheating or rolling for hours on end. And it is absolutely NOT a 'must'.

Your stats are fine, I guess the game was balanced for similar stats. If you're a powergamer or lacking skill you could make the game less challenging by spending a few days rolling your character or dumping int by at least 5 points in favor of physical stats but it won't make a big difference, stats offer only little bonuses and you're only one of six party members.

1% chance to roll it (if you got sub-18 STR, you can increase it ar cost of other stat to see what kind of 18/xx you got). it is actually very high chance in comparison to how much you need to roll for Lord in Wizardry games.

18/00 gives additional 5% chance to hit and 1 point of damage per attack round in comparison to 18/99 (and even bigger bonus in comparison to 17). In early and mid-game melee characters miss a lot, so 5% chance to hit isn't something to disregard. I remember lots of Save/Load screens in BG because of stuff like RNG making me miss yet again and get additional tick of poison from Melf's Acid Arrow, resulting in character's death. Later I learnt, that amount of Reloading decreases drastically if you don't disregard things like 18/00 for fighters/paladins.

All of that is irrelevant to your argument that it's a 'must'. It simply is not. You are talking about min/max'ing, and if you're going to do that, you may as well load your game into Shadow Keeper and give yourself the stats that you want. No character should be perfect. It's simply not the way of things.

I agree with that. It might be boring if character is perfect in everything. However, we are speaking about melee character, who isn't perfect in melee department. All joinable NPCs are far from perfect in what they are doing (and some bugs even make them lose proficiency points during auto-level-ups), It is nice to have at least 1 char, who is good at what he is supposed to do.

As DDDTrooper wrote - he is new player to BG. This my advice is aimed to help him not be frustrated with gameplay. I am sure that game can theoretically be beaten with character who has 3 in all stats, fighter with 18 Wis and other stats at minimums, but will it be truly enjoyable process? Unlike BG1 (where you could use few stat tomes), in BG2 stats are set in stone and can't be changed, bad decisions WILL make you know about them later in the game. Especially what concerns melee characters, as they are much more stat-reliant than casters. This isn't tabletop game, where GM can adjust rolls on fly, and this isn't exactly fairly balanced game.

Even more so, AD&D has Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards, and BG2 makes big emphasis on it. In order to get at least some use of melee character at higher levels, he must have at least so much STR, otherwise it is better to have just another caster. His offensive capabilities are not comparable to casters' potential even with 18/00 STR, with 17 STR he will be dead-weight, entirely wasted character slot which could be used for another Time Stop, high-level summon, Chain Contingency and what not.

Surely this approach might be called as power-gaming, but I'd rather call it proper preparation in heavily combat-based and RNG-reliant game. Power-gaming is things like multi-classing Kensai/Mage/Thief. 18/00 for fighters and paladins is just common sense.

Again, nothing you say... nothing supports your assertion that 18/00 is 'must have'. There isn't a single NPC in BG2 that has a STR of that magnitude. Only in ToB (Sarevok, a special case) is that level reached. You talk about the OP being a new player. Well, telling a new player that "18/00 is an absolute must, no questions" is simply irresponsible, and teaches them nothing except cheating.

Pre-made melee characters have bad stats in BG, thus it is better to have it made by yourself. In Throne of Bhaal anything sub-18 STR would be entirely unviable for melee, thus it has Sarevok with 18/00 STR.

18/00 isn't cheating it is easily rollable. It is a must just like having 18 INT is absolute must for mages (or no 9th lv spells). And as I wrote before, melee have huge issues with scaling in AD&D, there is world of difference between them and casters at high levels, gimping them even more is like wasting char slot as they will effectively be much worse than Mages' summonable creatures. Planetar has 19 STR, tons of resistances and immunities, capability to cast casting Cleric spells and some Mage spells, chance to instant KO on hit, etc. With such creatures there is no place for plain physical attackers with 17 STR.

Isn't it frustrating to have character who is worse than mere fraction of power of other class? I had my part of frustration with BG games (endless kiting or hiding melee in corners, so they won't be charmed/killed/drained/stoned/whatever, while keeping monsters busy with summons), and my recommendations are based on that. Same Throne of Bhaal is frustrating enough as it is (unless you heavily exploit), why make it worse?

I don't consider 18/00 to be easily rollable; 1% is just too low of a chance for me to consider it practical. I would rather just roll 18/9x or even 18/76 and just get on with the game.

Remember:
1. One casting of Strength will raise a character with 18/50 or more strength to 18/00. For characters with less strength, two castings will do the trick (unless you are using a mod that prevents such stacking). Strength has a very long duration, so you can cast it after resting and not have it wear off until your next rest.
2. For a Paladin (or Cleric), Draw Upon Holy Might will raise your strength. In Baldur's Gate 2 (unlike Icewind Dale), one point of strength increase will raise 18/x to 19, regardless of the value of x.
3. There are items that will set your strength to a certain value. This makes your base strength irrelevant.

I don't agree with any of the above. None of it. What you are saying to new players, in effect, is just press CTRL+8 at the character creation, choose the best stats and have done with it. That teaches new players absolutely nothing. THAT is why your 'advice' is irresponsible... and wrong.

. And while 18/76+ is arguably acceptable, 17 is just no go...
Wasn't it setting str to 18/76 even if it means decreasing it?
Spell slot, limited time, maintaining and weight capacity + later fights tend to drag. Though I slightly forgot about spell. And I forgot about machine which can permanently boost stats in BG2, but it is quite late in the game. Hmmm, non-cheating way to make full party with 25 in all stats by repeatably reexporting them and using multiplayer to import them in fresh game:) Now that's what I call power-gaming! :)
There are arguably better items for those slots if you have that high STR.
After having standard playthrough IE games, my other playthroughs I pretend to have godlike luck and hex-edit all stats to 18 :)) But I don't advice to do that, as that is truly cheating. However, having main stats maxed out during character creation isn't cheating.

Nothing is cheating, to yourself, if you tell yourself it isn't cheating.

You're confusing Strength with the cleric spell Strength of One (which is what Mazzy's inate is based on).

The Strength spell is overlooked because it is less useful later on; however it can be quite useful in the early stages of the game. It is also useful for dealing with weight issues: if someone is overloaded, casting Strength will provide a temporary reprieve.

Another good overlooked early game spell is Magic Weapon (or is it Enchanted Weapon?). One really nice use of this is to give Minsc two +3 Maces. Sure, they break after 24 hours, but you can just recast those spells, and Minsc's proficiencies are set up to make him really good with those weapons. (Notice that he has specialization in maces and two weapon fighting?)

I wouldn't take these spells on a sorcerer, but if you decide to make your main character a single class mage, those spells are worth considering as starting spells.

There are arguably better items for those slots if you have that high STR.
I disagree. The girdles/belts aren't that great overall. You can buy the Girdle of Hill Giant Strength at the Adventurers Mart in the Promenade as soon as you've earned enough coin, which should only take about two or three big quests. You can get by with 17 strength until then. There may be one or two better girdles/belts, but you can just put those on someone else in your party.