Hi guys.
Thinking of building an Elf Fighter and taking the RDD class
I would take a level of Bard to qualify for RDD

Am I right to think this build would have an XP penalty of 20% ?

AFAIK a human build would not suffer the XP penalty?

I want to go Elf for the bonuses and because I like Elves
I will use longswords and longbows
and the Elf gets a racial bonus with these weapons
and I will take Weapon Focus for them too
So I presume that will make my Elf very effective at melee

Any thoughts?

This is correct, an Elf Fighter 4 / Bard 1 / Red Dragon Disciple would suffer a 20% experience penalty. However, an Elf Fighter 3 / Bard 2 / Red Dragon Disciple would not suffer an experience penalty. Fighters are automatically proficient with these weapons. Being an Elf provides you no further advantage.

Good tip there about the classes. Thanks

I thought Elves got a +1 to hit with longswords?
or not?

They do not. Elves grant you proficiency with longswords if your class doesn't, but is of no further benefit if you already have proficiency from your class.

Weapon Focus gives you +1 with your weapon.

Try half Elves. No XP loss

He might as well play a human in that case. Half-elves are nice for roleplaying purposes, but from a strictly technical point of view, they're inferior to both humans and elves.

Baldur's Gate used the 2nd Edition AD&D rules, which grant elves a +1 bonus to attack rolls with longsword, short sword, longbow and shortbow provided that character can actually wield these weapons. If you happen to play a class which can't use them, like an elven mage for example, you miss out on these bonuses.

NWN, on the other hand, uses the 3rd Edition rules. These don't grant elves any bonuses to hit, but instead allow any elf to wield these weapons (and the rapier) even if they normally couldn't due to chosen class(es) and/or lack of feats. I admit that I prefer the 3rd edition rules, simply because I also like playing elves, and I usually don't play martial classes but some sort of spellcaster, so the ability to use five really good weapons comes in quite handily.

Thanks for replies guys and useful info

decided to go with a human and build a Red Dragon Disciple melee character...

Fighter/Bard/RDD

Or you could go Dwarf. Favored Class is Fighter. Of Corse Cha sucks.(6)