[QUOTE=lompo]I agree, start doing the quest in Athkalia to raise money and level up.
I would disagree with the easy list, consider a char. right after Chateau, without great equipment and in that case solo (with a fighter wwhich doesn't help):
Mencar is not easy (specially for a solo fighter right after Chateau) normally (without cheese), and it's very difficoult with tactics/battles mode;
Skinner, not difficoult, but need fire dmg;
Lich in the gates is not easy without cheese for a young adventurer specially for solo fighter;
Sir Sarles, you can't do that before the temple sewers, but agree would be easy;
Sewers: watch for the gang in the sewers, normaly is a fairly difficoult fight for a low exp. party, it's a difficoult fight for a solo young fighter, but with tactics/battles stay away from it until you are strong!
Maevar: with tactics is not easy at all.
I would add within the easy the other quest/fight in the Graveyard, the quest that you can get from the paladin order, some sub quest in Umar hills and Windspear hills.[/QUOTE]
This is looking at it from my mages (and thieves) point of view, because of the mage's long range ability and the thieve's fade ability this fight much more managable. With Mencar (I'm pretty sure I typed it up somewhere on this forum) it took me a good half hour to hour of real time to kill him using a sling, hard, long winded but fun and rewarding to earn 10k of experience out of the dungeon.
The skinner mystery is tough due to Rune Assassins, they backstab fast and too much for any normal person to survive, the mage's advantage there is he can stone skin to waste their potions, this makes life much easier. (Though things get very bad when you run out of stoneskin). I don't know why you would need fire damage though
The lich depending on how you wish to play can be hard or not, with my mage I simply bought a scroll of shapeshift, transformed into a jelly and then sat there, I also had a wand of frost to kill the pit fiend (which can't hurt a jelly) and the Effreti. You could use a scroll of undead protection for a fighter if you wished but you would not be able to bash open the lock and get the daystar...
Sir Sarles can be done as early as you want as long as you initiate the Unseeing Eye quest you can start doing the (ridiculously easy in comparison) Illithium Ore quest. The daystar takes unnecessary hassles out of the way since it will destroy those ghost children, but you could attempt to concentrate on Neb first, although he has healing potions and can backstab (if memory serves me)
I would strongly be against Windspear early, it's ridiculous that you're fighting orcs that can all be killed in one hit to only end up toe to toe with Admantite golems and greater wolfweres. I have yet to come up with a good tactic for killing greater wolfweres except imprison. -_-
The thing I'd recommend is that you get the cloak of the sewers because it's abilities are quite useful and for a fighter going toe to toe with a Rakasha should be easy. Once you've gotten the cloak you can use it to prevent missiles killing you or regenerate during a fight. The party in the sewers was amazingly easy when I tried it but it was with a mage again, I used my wands to do my dirty work and saved my scrolls of Elemental summoning. Next to the Rakasha of the sewers is a treasure location in the form of a valve, inside in all my times I've found a scroll of elemental summoning. It's not going to survive or kill anything but it takes the spells and heat. I then simply lured the people away one but one and blasted them with the dubious and highly volitile wand of lightning until I killed them all.
~
I know that there is a number of quests that don't require fighting (Xzar & Monty, Mourning Paladin, the ghost-boy and his teddybear) but wouldn't it be best to leave those for just after I've dual-classed and walk around with a level 7 mage?
If I have a problem it's resting in BG2 I only do it when fighting things truely out of my league, for example a solo mage fighting the keeper of thralls at level 12 results in a massive headache. With a mage it's easy to simply read scrolls and level up but most importantly remember the location that you sold those wands from the dungeon. When you sell the wands the storekeep recharges them to full capacity and they become surpremely powerful and can bypass spell protections (but not innate immunities like lich or Rakasha). Using these wands as a substitute for your own abilities is one of the smartest things you can do.
First buy back the wand of frost for about 7000 gold, this one has 100 charges and does major damage against large groups at close range, it unfortunately can destroy items but with planning that can be avoided (just don't use it on "Near Dead") but can even prove immensely useful for killing pitfiends of all things! 16 000 easy experience for a protected from evil mage or silly jelly.
Second the Wand of Summoning, this has 50 charges and costs 15 000 gold this wonderfull item acts not as an army but as a shield to protect oneself from insane powerful magics like powerword kill. Also the amazing thing about this wand is that it will always summon a minimum of 3 monsters per cast.
Thirdly I recommend the wand of cloudkill, as long as you don't use it in unreasonable fashion it is a potent tool for killing annoying monsters or fighting human cannon fodder. Excellent for finishing large groups of trolls that could get up if you're using a weapon, also effective for fighting otherwise dangerous umberhulks.
Finally the choices left are up to you there's two more that have proved useful in situational circumstances for example the wand of stun and wand of fire. The wand of stunning is powerful and useful against elementals, which will always get stunned by the third shot, it comes with about 100 charges and good for separating groups or stopping mages. This is especially excellent for a thief to backstab again and again since it will stun a poor being for 10 rounds (9 backstabs or 9 dooms). The wand of fire is interesting to say the least, it comes with 50 fireballs and 50 agannazar's scorchers, it works well against most undead and can also kill multiple trolls. It is unfortunately let down by fire resistance being so common.
The advantage of wands is you can use them on the street.
Also the scrolls you can't read, you can use, keeping a scroll of web or summon nishruu can save your backside more than pure high level power. I often cast from scrolls if I haven't rested (which is common) or because I'm simply too low level.
Simply put the mage is more than capable for finishing any fight you want at just about any level as long as you think things out.