I have zero experience with D&D, ive only played Baldurs gate 1 so far and you only needed to create one character for that so it was easy, but 6 characters with 6 stats, all these feats and skills etc is insane, ive read a few guides but they seem pretty complicated and id prefer to make my own party, so do you guys have any tips for creating my first party

im on about IWD2 btw, im guessing IWD1 is the same too, ive yet to download that(my net speed is horrendous)

IWD1 uses the 2nd edition rules while IWD2 uses the 3rd edition rules. There's quite a bit of difference between the 2.

In IWD2 you might want the classical Fighter, Rogue, Cleric, Wizard team and then to more character of your own choice.
Your party could look like this:
Shield Dwarf Fighter, Str 18, Dex 13, Con 20, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 1 Feats assigned to Power attack and Axes ( You could lower Int to improve Wis further for a higher Will safe)
Human Cleric (Helm, Lathander or Tempus) Str 14, Dex 13, Con 14, Int 3, Wis 18, Cha 14, Make sure you assign as much skill point to Concentration as possible, Feats assigned to Combat Casting and Subvocal casting
Moon Efl Wizard (Specialized in Divination) Str 8, Dex 20, Con 14, Int 18, Wis 12, Cha 4, Put maximum skill point in Alchemy, Concentration, Spellcraft and Knowledge(Arcana), Feats assigned to Combat Casting and Subvocal casting
Moon Elf Rogue, Str 13, Dex 20, Con 12, Int 18, Wis 10, Cha 3, Skillpoints assigned to Disable device, Move silently, Hide, Pickpocket and Search. Feat is Rapid shot or Ambidexterity if you want to use 2 weapons

This group is a power gaming group that might make thing too easy if you add 2 more characters. The only thing missing is somebody to talk to others who has high Cha score. You could pick a Bard or Sorceror for this. Paladin might seem a good choice but beware that they sometimes turn down rewards.

IWD1 uses the same rules BG1, so consider playing it first before starting to play a game with more complex and totally different rules. It's also better to play IWD1 before you get told its plot in IWD2.
Remember your BG1 experience and play the classes you want to try out the most in IWD. I suggest reading the IWD1 manual and posting which party you have in mind, we'll give advice on optimizing. You'll want to play your own party, not someone else's party.

Good advice there. Figure out what kind of party you'd like for either IWD1 or IWD2 and we'll be glad to help you put it together.

IWD1 has a much more simple system. I'll summarize the basics -

Fighters, Paladins and Rangers are your melee and/or tanks. Give them high strength, mid dexterity unless you plan on going archer(I think you may as well multi or dual class w/thief for an archer though), high constitution, and decent wisdom for will saving and for the ranger and paladins' small spell selection. For paladins you'll also want good charisma(increases their saves, meaning they resist spells and such more effectively) but it's automatically fairly high so.

Paladins will be particularly good against spells with high saving throws and have some extra abilities and small amount of cleric spells, while Fighters will put out more raw damage since they can specialize further in weapons. Rangers can stealth and get some druid spells and tend to have pretty high stat rolls - though if you reroll enough any class can.

Clerics and Druids are the main divine casters. Wisdom is your main stat for them. Clerics can wear heavier armor and thus will need less dexterity and can be a bit more tanky/melee based. They have more healing and defensive oriented spells, and can also turn - frighten or destroy(or if evil control) - undead. Druids have a more offensive spell set and can shapeshift to melee but it's of limited usefulness.

Thieves take care of locks and traps and so on, you'll want good dexterity since they can't wear heavier armors, and some intelligence to boost your thieving skills. They are fairly weak in combat but when attacking from behind from stealth deal increased damage and are decent for giving caster enemies trouble.

Bards are a jack of all trades sort, some arcane casting, some (negligible, IMO) thieving skills namely pickpockets, and songs. The latter is what they're really useful for since they give significant bonuses to your whole party, and also identifying items although mages can do this as well with a spell. Light armored so best used as archers when using weapons. Bards will mainly need charisma, dexterity, and some intelligence.

Mages are the arcane casters, intelligence is their main stat but they also can't cast in armor so you'll want good dexterity too. They have a number of utility and control spells, buffs, and of course fireballs and such for damage.

It's worth noting that constitution is an important stat all around as it gives your characters additional hit points which are fairly nice for keeping everyone alive. Another thing worth noting is that some classes really don't need some attributes, and you can drop them as low as possible(to put more points in more helpful attributes) with no loss. These stats are intelligence(only mages, thieves really need) and charisma(fighters, rangers, thieves, wizards get no significant benefit from, clerics don't need it much either). It's considered cheesy, or "power gaming" IE not role-playing spirited to do so by some, but to each his own.

Then there's multiclassing and dual classing. Multi you level as both classes, dual, which is humans only, you start as one class and switch to another. Until you reach the level of your first class with your second though, it is deactivated, so dual classes go through a period of weakness that is made up for later. I find the best class to dual or multi with is fighter, especially for thieves who benefit a lot from the additional combat capabilities.
When dual classing it's best to always take non-caster classes first, as otherwise you cut off the spellcasting classes' spell progression too early.
Also worth noting that you can take a party of fewer than six, which is where multi-classes really shine.

The core of a good party, IMO, is -

1-2 Fighter/Paladin/Ranger
1 Pure Cleric or Fighter dual classed to Cleric
1 additional Cleric or a Druid, possibly multiclassed with fighter
1 Thief, ideally multi or dual class with fighter or mage

The last 1-2 are entirely personal preference - some choices may be more powerful but with the above you have all you need anyway. I'd recommend a mage or fighter/mage just to get haste though, if you didn't make your thief a dual or multi w/mage.


An example party -

Fighter
18 Strength
12 Dexterity
18 Constitution
8 Intelligence
12 Wisdom
8 Charisma

Paladin
16 Str
12 Dex
16 Con
8 Int
14 Wis
17 Cha

Cleric
14 Str
12 Dex
16 Con
10 Int
18 Wis
10 Cha

Druid
12 Str
14 Dex
14 Con
10 Int
18 Wis
16 Charisma

Fighter/Thief
14 Strength
18 Dexterity
14 Constitution
14 Intelligence
10 Wisdom
12 Charisma

Mage
10 Strength
16 Dexterity
16 Constitution
18 Intelligence
8 Wisdom
10 Charisma

I might summarize IWD2's system later but it's much more complicated, I'd recommend playing IWD1 first to get introduced to the more basic D&D style combat.

Under 2nd edition rules there's little reason not to give every char dex 18 and con 16 (18 for fighters, paladins and rangers)
I like to give characters at least 12 str so they can carry some stuff but only the melee classes need higher amounts to do more damage.
Int is only useful for mages and bards as it determines how many spells they can learn at each level.
Wis is pointless for any class that does not cast divine spells. Only clerics, druids, paladins and rangers need an above average wis
Cha is least useful stat. Some classes like paladins, bards and druids need a minimum cha to qualify but you only need one person with cha 18 to do the talking. All other chars can have a cha as low as their race/class allows.

These guidelines are geared towards power gaming which unfortunately is heavily rewarded by the game mechanism. A character with Dex 14 is obviously more nimble than a character with dex 11 but they still get the same modifier to AC (zero)

Maybe I'm overlapping my 3e and 2e here but I thought dex still affected AC in 2e, limited by armor however. And I' was also under the impression wisdom still affected your saves in 2e.

As for giving every character 18 dex, I can see how it would help make them great at ranged combat but I try not to powergaming that much as I said earlier. Low strength scores are fine for non-melee but it is annoying not being able to carry much and can sometimes limit your gear options. And as for 16 constitution it is the ideal number for non-fighter style classes, if you can afford the points in it.

Yep, you're confusing 2nd and 3rd. Under 3rd, Having a dex of 14 is very nice (+2 AC) but under 2nd you need at least 15 dex for a bonus. The main difference is that under 3rd edition slightly above average scores give a bonus, but under 2nd you need at least a 15 for any bonus

That does sound like typical 2nd edition shenanigans, haha.

Another thing to note with 2nd ed rules, is that dual-classing is extremely powerful. Take 4 levels of fighter first to gain hitpoints and weapon proficiency, then dual class to whatever the character is supposed to be.

Also, both 2nd and 3rd edition characters benefit greatly from planning. DnD is a gamesystem where you really need to know what you want your character to look like at the end of the game, when you are creating him/her.

As noted, you're confusing 2 and 3 ed. Another point re AC is that in 2e rules, armor does not affect your DEX bonus. So a plate wearer will still get the full AC bonus from having 18 DEX.

I recently started an IWD playthrough with a party that's fun for me so far, although I'm having to be very careful due to minimal healing during the first 3 levels:

paladin (human)
fighter 3/druid (human)
fighter/thief (elf)
ranger 6/cleric (human)
fighter 3/mage (human)
bard (half-elf)

This is a good-aligned (obviously except for the F/D) with high charisma. I can see though that a less virtuous bard would be great if you want to pickpocket. Bards learn some very nice songs at higher level, can do a bit of light casting, and can save your thief having to put points in pickpocketing if you want to know what all the NPCs are carrying.