I've got the entire BG collection but I'm embarrassed to say I only got a few hours into BG1 before giving up. This was back in my FPS days when the slow pace, D&D rules, and tons of reading left me uninterested. Now, years later, I want to give it another try using the TUTU mod (play BG1 using the BG2 engine)

I've been doing lots of reading but I'm not sure about my character. What kind of build would be good for someone who never plays D&D and doesn't want to have the frustration of saving/loading lots while croaking constantly?

I see Ranger/cleric and Fighter/cleric are common suggestions. I think that would appeal to me as I tend to prefer a melee/mage combination.

All suggestions welcome. :)

Fighters and Mages dominate the late game, but early game can be tough for everyone. Mages are good but they're better as support characters, and the Thief is more of situational utility character. The easiest way to get into the game is to probably roll a Fighter with 18 strength, 18 charisma and 18 constitution. You can put proficiency into Long Blade and Bow, then use a sword/shield combo for most of the game. Bows work great early on, though, especially if you get one character to take the aggro and another to plink away with the bow.

Bows are always useful, massed ranged fire can shred most enemies since they flinch when hit and stop moving briefly, pour fire on and you can kill enemies before they get to you

go pure fighter at first, you level faster and gain power faster that way, i would skip the dualing. Magic is impressive but not for the new players, and acually a Mage gets his ass owned for a very long time in both Bg1 and BG2 untill they get good enough gear /spells

I recommend playing an half-orc fighter/cleric. Specialize in war hammers and slings.
Definetely get 19 str, 18 dex and 19 con, dump int to the minimum, try to maximize wis and cha.

Don't confuse 'noob-friendly' and 'easy', pure fighter would probably suffice, don't you think? It'S not like BG1 is that hard...

Fighter/cleric is more noob-friendly than pure fighter. Definitely better than having to find and hire a cleric NPC for access to the powerful cleric spells which do make a difference.

There's ups and downs to muliclassed fighters. I prefer a pure fighter because I don't like the weapon restrictions of AD&D rules.

Clerics can't use bows or edged weapons, so you would be limited to a sling for ranged combat, and maces, flails, hammers, etc. for melee. The healing and buff/debuff spells are really nice, though, so it's a tradeoff.

I suppose you could go with a paladin. Then you could use all weapons and still have some basic healing spells, turn undead, etc.

First time, id definatly go fighter.. that said, you can always fill up your party with every other class, there are tons of options around the game, over 20

put most points into str,dex, con... dont go to low on charisma, but if wisdom and int are around 8-10, its not gonna effect you

Well yeah, but you'll get crazy weapon restrictions like Jaheira, no?

edit: Oh right, I keep forgetting Jaheira's a druid. By all means, go cleric/fighter, that's quite an awesome combination

No, you were right. Druids are even more restricted than clerics for weapons, but clerics still have enough restrictions to be annoying.

I think if you are going to make a cleric as your main character, you should go all the way. You'll get more spells, and pure clerics can still fight decently.

Pure class half orc cleric (19 str,18 dex,16con, dump int, max wis) is in fact no bad idea. When they use their special deity power they are about as powerful as the multiclass in the offense, but only once per day, else they do only about half as much damage, the defensive power is unaffected.
But since you'll have up to 6 characters who can fight in the party and only one to cast cleric spells the extra cleric level might be more useful for the party, although the multiclass is the better solo character.

I, as an (ex) noob tried out the Fighter/Cleric class that is so highly recommended and had a hard time. Got stuck at some point in like chapter 3 cause I couldn't defeat a group of enemies - I hardly ever leveled at the end of chapter 3 I was still level 1. Level 1!

So I decided to give it another try as another class. Played a ranger, had an easy time till I got to like chapter 6.

Supposedly this point of the game is the point in which the game gets excruciatingly hard, especially if you're not a Mage which are supposed to be ridiculously powerful at this point.

That's BG's highly praised non-linearity. You have the freedom to do what you want but if you stick to the plot instead of exploring the "optional" areas step by step to gain levels and equipment you might get into trouble.

Clerics start to shine when they gain access to level 3 spells, in the beginning any character able to specialize in longbows is easier to play.

I would say a pure fighter wouldn't be bad, as your main character's demise means game over and those extra HPs help. However, Fighter/Cleric or Ranger/Cleric aren't bad either, mostly because there aren't very many good clerics in this game.

Really, just don't be a mage, because they are made of glass and will die very easily early on, and don't be a thief (unless you plan on dual classing or something) because there are plenty of NPCs who can do that for you.