Sonny, there's no strictly necessary reason to uninstall TOB, the FixPack, etc. But you could install SOA in another directory on your computer if you wanted to. I have multiple installations on my own computer, including an unmodded game of SOA, an unmodded game of TOB, and several modded games of TOB. I use a different shortcut for each one. Once you have everything installed, the only issue that arises is when an editor, resource viewer, or mod needs to know where to find the installation you want to modify or examine, but there isn't any problem if you tell them where to look.
The Consistent Stats component raises an interesting issue--namely, some things from BG1 are different in BG2. Minsc, Jaheira, Viconia, and Edwin have slightly different stats, and Imoen is dual-classed. Their portraits and soundsets are also different, and it might be a bit of a shock when you first see them (although Viconia and Jaheira have definitely improved). And there are also a lot of other changes between the two games, such as thieving point distribution, proficiencies, kits, changes to some spells such as Chromatic Orb, and hundreds of other things. As I said before, the "continuity" between BG1 and BG2 is not all it's cracked up to be.
Therefore, I don't think you need to worry about trying to make BG1 and BG2 "consistent". If you want to do that, how far are you willing to go? You could change stats, portraits, soundsets, spell animations, etc. if you really wanted to go to all that trouble, but some things can never be made the same, and I don't think it's worth doing. Besides, most of the changes should be considered improvements. The game designers went to a lot of trouble to "perfect" and balance the game. If I were you, I would leave Shadows of Amn the way it is, at least for now. You'll get used to it.
I don't mean to be argumentative, but I really don't see the point in importing a character for "consistency" if you're immediately going to resort to an editor or cheat codes to make him the way you want him to be. What do you gain from that? And why go to all that extra trouble? If it's a question of experience points, there's a simple cheat code that can give your character any amount of experience you want him to have. But then you have to deal with the question, should you change the NPCs' experience, too? Minsc, Jaheira, and Imoen don't have the same amount of experience they ended up with when you played BG1. And I already mentioned some of their other differences. Do you want to change them, too? I don't think you should bother changing any of them, at least not in your very first game.
I do like to edit the NPCs sometimes (for example, I change their classes so that I can keep them in my party but still have the characters I want), and I do like some of the changes that are made by the BG2 Tweakpack as well as other mods. In particular, I like the bottomless containers and unlimited stacks of ammo, potions, scrolls, gems, etc. But I don't think the rule changes and new kits and things like that are appropriate for your very first game.
As for the experience cap in Shadows of Amn, I don't understand what other people mean when they say that it is "ridiculously low". If you
install and play TOB, then of course you need the higher experience cap. But unless I do a lot of "experience farming" or
play with quest mods installed or
import a character who has much higher experience than 89,000 points, a full party of six does not reach maximum experience in SOA when I play. I think that TOB has made people take a lot of things for granted.
Besides, does anyone think that Sonny will complete every single quest in the game on his first try without using a walkthrough? I missed a bunch of stuff the first couple times I played SOA. And that was certainly one of the things that kept my party members' experience below the level cap. I don't think the game designers intended for everyone to achieve 100% completion. It's just one of those things that a lot of
players insist upon.
When it comes to "micromanagement", Fighter/Mages are one of the most demanding character builds, and Fighter/Thieves are one of the least demanding builds. That might be a consideration. Personally, I like to get the most out of all of my party members instead of spending most of my concentration on only one of them.
EDIT: Oh, and wait till you see the new Ring of Wizardry. I bet it's not what you expect.
