cleric/mage

[spooky2]

Is there any reason whay pick dualclased cleric to mage and not multiclased cleric/mage?

[Stilgar]

Sure there is, you will have less cleric spells, but you will level faster as a mage.
And you can still wear an helmet and shield while casting spells (shield and sling is very nice) for a mage.

[Luis Antonio]

I prefer the multiclassed one, Spooky, due to the low XP cap on BG1. You'd get access to very few cleric spells - and that wouldnt really work for me. I'd prefer to have him multiclassed, work till later on with lower level spells but get the better cleric spells to balance the mage fireworks with healing and protection power.

I played a cleric mage through BG2, and there they are really good - but as far as BG1 is concerned I tend to avoid mages, specially dual/multi classed.

[Curry]

Yup, I've found mages pretty useless in BG1. It's ridiculously easy to beat the game without a mage (or any spell casters) in the team.