as i just myself worked through the first stages of the game (i played bg1 through many times so i know the system well) i realised it must be pretty tough starting for some people, esp money wise, so heres quick guide to the early stages, its spoilerish but not too specific:

firstly obviously complete every quest possible before leaving on the expedition in the prologue, always complete every possible quest, obvious i know but you get gold/exp/and good items so worth doing even the fiddly little ones. Also make sure you spend all the gold you have on getting reasonable items for your party before you leave on the expedition so you will be better prepared for whats to come. In the orc caves it can be dangerous for lowbie parties, esp the ogre, the way to do it is scout with one man and only draw a few orcs at a time with your scout back to your party so you have numbers advantage, thats the way to kill both shaman and ogre, though its hard to draw the ogres minions out without him following, if he does follow then you have another tactic, let him chase one of your party, whilst your fighting the minions let one man with bow fire at the ogre whilst another man runs in circles with the ogre following, ogre will never get a hit in and eventually die (this tactic works great vs most monsters)

once into the next chapter you will want gold so go to the tombs area and rest alot, you will be attacked by yetis, their pelts sell for 20gp each and you make alot of quick exp at early levels killing em, aim for about level 4 on all the party off just the yetis before you even go in the tombs, that way you will breeze through the hardest tomb at the end.

Im now near completing chapter 2, had no real problems so far, been nice going with those tactics, heres just one more, the section just outside dragons eye is completely safe for resting (not been attacked yet) so if your low on health and need to rest then go outside and relax in peace [img]smile.gif[/img]

<font color="cyan">Very generous :D </font>

I bought this about a year ago and put it on the backburner when I bought BG2. do you know where I can find a walkthrough?

heh doh [img]tongue.gif[/img] course ironworks has one, or just go to any search engine and type icewind walkthrough, thats the way to find any walkthrough, search engines find whatever you want.

<font color="cyan">Dude, if you've played BGII you really don't need a walkthrough. The game is quite linear in comparison to BGII, so you should be fine.</font>

some people find walkthroughs comforting [img]tongue.gif[/img] anyhows most questions you need can be answered here with 24 hours so walkthroughs arent that needed, plus as he said its quite linear so you cant really go wrong, or least i havent been able to so far