the_atm: What do I do first? What class, what race?
Choose your class/race/attributes based on what sounds appealing to you.
This game is much more forgiving with character generation than Baldur's Gate. There are no real trap choices here - every character that you can create, is viable. Though of course each will play a little differently, so read the description to see what suits your style.
Another reason why the main character build is not
that important, is that you'll eventually have a whole party (6 characters at any one time, but you can have several more on roster and switch between them at inns). This includes both scripted companions, and custom ones that you can create ("hire" in return for money) at certain places.
One thing to keep in mind though, is that stat checks in conversations always check the main character's attributes, no matter who initiated the conversation.
The most common stat checks of this kind are, in this order: Resolve, Intellect, Perception.
So if you play these kinds of games for the role-playing rather than just the combat, and you love to read more text and have more options during dialogs, you might want to consider that when building your character.
There is some redundancy though - i.e. often you'll be able to get a similar result if you have a high score in
one of those "dialog stats". No need to have a high score in all three of them.