I'd recommend against playing as a Drow your first time, because it adds the matter of more powerful & less powerful races and ECL (Effective Character Level) to the mix, which is one of the most difficult subjects to correctly balance, I think. Drow get much better stats & abilities than standard races, so they gain less XP or at least level slower. It's quite hard for the DM to keep track of this all, especially for a starting DM.
As for the soulknife, it's rather a sub-par class. One quick way to fix it, more or less, is giving it full Base Attack Bonus, like a Fighter.
System Reference Document v3.5
Check this out. Very handy.