Playing through

[KingBooHamster]

I've never played through Baldur's Gate, BG2, and TOB before, though I've done them all individually (BG as a dwarf fighter/cleric, BG2+TOB as an Undead Hunter). I could use the dwarf who I like from Baldur's Gate, but I want to do this with with a mage.

The reason is when I played BG2 and TOB especially I didn't really use NPC mages to their full potential and I was kind of jealous of the enemy mages who could have contingency skins and shields and illusions and then stop time and rip apart my guys while I slowly hacked them to death.

I'm wondering, however, how you'd recommend I do this. My first thought was an elf fighter/mage, but then I thought I wouldn't really get to focus on the magic as much. I could also just do an elf mage, but do mages really do that much for you in Baldur's Gate 1?

My next thought was playing BG1 as a human fighter (Kensai at import, maybe?) and dualing to mage kind of early in SOA. I imagine I'd end up a much better mage than the elf fighter/mage. Is that correct?

With either dual or multi class I'd be able to switch to a bow and be pretty good with it once I ran out of spells. At what level do you find that your mage no longer needs to resort to weapons much or at all?

So in summary:
Playing: All three games, want to focus on magic but not suck. Will have a full party.
Which class?:
Elf fighter/mage [longsword+bow->longsword/staff of magi+bow]
Elf mage [quarterstaff+sling/dart/throwingdagger->staff of mage+unlimited sling/dart/throwingdagger]
Human fighter/mage (maybe special fighter/mage, dualing in SOA) [twohandedsword/longsword+bow/crossbow->sword/katana/staff of magi+bow/crossbow]

[kmonster]

I recommend playing a specialist wizard, a conjurer or an illusionist. An extra spell per levels does make a difference if you want to rely on spells.

[Crenshinibon]

Though there is an NPC of the same class, you can also try to be an illusionist/thief, which gives you a nice edge in combat later on, not to mention Timestop, in the form of a trap.

I think that in BG1 the backstab is invaluable, especially in the final encounter. Later on, you can deal some heavy damage with it (or without it) as you're buffed up with your spells.

[CFM]

I always thought that missile weapons rule BG1, spells rule SoA, and delivering massive amounts of damage quickly rules ToB.

So with that in mind, your idea of running a fighter in BG1, and dualling to a mage early in SoA, seems like a very solid idea.

And if you consider hanging out with Imoen, then there's even role-playing credence with dualling to a mage, as Imoen does.

Focusing on spells will probably make SoA feel very different, which is always good with subsequent runs through a game.