Berserker.
Easy to play, and hard to kill. Their rage ability makes them immune to insta Game Over spells.

Just one thing to note with the berserker's rage: If you are playing a difficulty higher than Core Rules, you will take more than 15 damage when the rage wears off, resulting in a net loss of HP. (This also applies to the rage of a certain space hamster carrier.)

You wont need high charisma on BG1 if you are not a sorcerer. Money grows on trees on BG1 and i was able to buy anything i saw. Never had money problems. If you are interested, you can use Imoen for her high Charisma while talking to Npcs.

The best class for BG1 is definetly Fighter. Imoen can take care of traps and locks and Jaheire and Minsc woman (forgot her name) can take care of magic need. Fighter is the only class that can grow expertise beyond 2 and has decent health and very easy to make. Just make it 18/00 STR, 18 DEX, 18 CON, and 10 int and you can leave rest.

You may have a hard time with Clerics since healing is not like in any other games in BG. Clerics can wear any armour but their weaponary is very limited. Honestly, there is not a good weapon in BG1 that clerics can use. Atleast i couldnt find any in any of my 10 playthrough. Besides, If you are a good aligned character you get free healing ability not matter what your class is.

BTW, make sure you get the tables for each attribute. For example there is no difference between a DEX 7 or 14 if you are not a Thief (in which case you should make it 18 or even 19). In both cases they give 0 AC. Or CON 7 or 14. So if you are not going to make your CON or DEX 16, then better leave it at 7 and max other stats.

I never had chance to finish BG2 so i cant recommend.

I started BG:T (Baldurs Gate Trilogy) Mode where you can play BG1 with BG2 engine and i am enjoying my awesome Elf Thief/mage. its very fun once you get the hang of the rules.

There is a +2 warhammer available for free early game. You can also purchase a +3 quarterstaff from Ulgoth's Beard.

You are very right. I didnt think about warhammers since Jaheira cant use them and i think her as my cleric. I think that crazy guys hammer is one of the best early items in the game with some additional lightening attack. I made Khalid use it even tho he doesnt have a profession with it.

BTW, it seems Clerics can only be proficient with weapons (1 slot only). That means they cant have the 1/2 extra attack. That sucks. It would take 6 seconds to make a swing instead of 4.

Actually Baldur's Gate 1 doesn't have Sorcerers, and even if it did, they would still have no use for Charisma. (Baldur's Gate 2 has Sorcerers who don't use Charisma at all.)

I speaking like a drunk person lately. You are very right. I also have NWN installed and i play it time to time (where sorcerers use charisma on 3.5 rules) . You are also right about BG1 not having sorcerers but i am playing BGT lately where you can play any BG2 class in BG1.

So yes. You wont need charisma at all in BG1.

Charisma is actually more vital in BG1 than in BG2. You get better rewards as a result of a high charisma and some NPCs (like Xan) won't even join your party if your charisma is too low. If your party leader has a high charisma, you'd be able to invite members you've kicked out of your party back in and it stops certain NPCs from slaughtering each other.

In BG2, a high charisma is only needed if you are a bard or paladin. Higher charisma results in lowered shop prices in both games.

What you are talking about is reputation, not charisma. Charisma has no effect on party members joining, leaving, fighting, nor on the scale of any rewards. Charisma only effects npc reactions to you, including shop keeper prices.

Charisma is quite useless stat in BG, I agree, however it still alters some rewards in game. E.g., with high Enough Charisma you get Dagger +1 from Fuller's quest in Candlekeep. Some other checks are also based on reaction roll, which are dependent on both - Charisma and Reputation.

Like I said, charisma effects npc reactions to you, as in the case of Fuller.

It didn't occur to me that druids had a requirement for charisma. They don't really appeal to me so I never play them. I thought a bards' casting ability was connected to his charisma. Even if it isn't they should still have a relatively high charisma since they are utility characters.