I'm debating was to what race to make my F/T multiclass. I keep coming back to Halfling. 19 Dex means bonus to ranged and higher thieving skills. 18 Con is nice since 17 or 19 would mean the bonus HP gained by his fighter half would be rounded down. And of course the shorty Saving Throw bonuses are sweet. The only downside I can see is Str, which isn't added in until after the Backstab multiplier anyhow, right? Any thoughts?

In BG multiclass fighters get the fighter con bonus for all classes, half point bonuses are saved and when another half point is added you get the full point.
Fighter/thief gets up to 8+con bonus HP per level, that's 11 with 17, 12 with 18 and 13 with 19 con.

Halfling is great to get many thieving skills from the beginning, strength can be raised temporarily with the level 2 mage spell (2 in a row grant 18/00) or with potions.

If I'm playing Tutu that'd be different right? And you agree that for F/T the halfling is probably best overall?

Personally, I prefer the Half-Elf F/T or F/M.

If you play Tutu half-orc is the best option since you can start with 19 str, 18 dex, 19 con and 18 cha.

I don't have all my manuals with me, but I'm pretty sure that you get less STR bonus with small weapons and you'll have to have a small weapon with a halfling. So that backstab dmg will be much lower with the halfling b/c of the small weapon's lower damage and the less STR added onto the end.

Again, this is all on memory and 2.0 and 3.0 rules get merged in my head regularly.

@Landeril - Half-elves don't get bonus to bows like whole elves, nor the 19 Dex of whole elves and halflings. I had considered a whole elf, but am wondering if the extra point of Str is worth sacrificing the halfling saving throws.

@kmonster - That was actually my initial instinct. I'm a half-orc fan, if for no other reason that not having to sacrifice a good roll because of a low 18/**. Also because it means you can have 19 Str on non-warriors. But then I started thinking, with a halfling you get 19 Dex, 18 Con (but that Con grants +5 to saving throws) and just as much Cha. The real issue to me is whether the 19 Str is better than the saving throws.

@Tallima - Halflings have no weapon limitations in BG, or least not in BG2, which Tutu runs on the engine of.

A comparison:

halfling: +1 to hit ranged and +5 to the important saving throws, thieving skills as if 2 level higher
half-orc: +2 to hit and +6 to damage in melee, +1 HP/level, far higher carrying capacity

+5 to saving throws isn't more valuable than 1 con.

I'm going to go against the flow and say dwarf. If you start with BG1 you will get 19 str 18 dex 20 con with the tomes. Not as good as the half-orc, but he gets the saving throws.

STR can usually be increased by items or long lasting spells, so if you are going to minmax stats you might as well go for 19 DEX or 19 CON.

In ToB the saving throws will be good enough without bonus but str and con will still make a difference.

Up until the mid-game for SOA starting strength matters, but once you get the belt of frost giant strength it becomes not as important. It really all depends on your party composition and whether or not you plan on having that many melee characters.

So for a fighter-thief I would go halfing, because there are more than a few items you can use to buff your strength (both permanently and temporarily).