I never played Bg1 but i heard it was good.....i dont know s*** about AD&D....What classes should i choose? what the hell is a cleric and a swashbuckler? Are those monsters or what? I'm at school right now so i cant play it till i get home. I know what a monk and thief is!!! Maybe i should play with them first!!!! Dam i cant wait!!

My first and most important piece of advice--play a single player multiplayer game. What does this mean? It means you should create a multiplayer game, but assign control of all the characters to yourself. This way you can create more than one character. Personally, I started with 3 characters, and I've dropped one, so I have two of my own creation and 4 NPCs that are going along for the ride. I started with a specialist mage (an illusionist!) a thief and a monk. I swapped the monk out for an NPC (Nalia, who you'll meet at the Copper Coronet). Then I dropped that NPC for another. Everybody has their own playing style, and their own favorite character classes, so there really isn't a "best". If you're new to games using the Bioware Infinity engine, I strongly suggest that you: A)read the manual carefully and B)run the tutorial. If you don't do these things you will become frustrated. The other thing you might want to do is set the difficulty level down one notch, at least until you get used to the interface. The monsters in the first dungeon would be pretty tough for someone not used to the interface, I think. I'll give you one final hint. Missle weapons rule!!! Don't leave home without them.

What helped me out alot is I bought the 2nd Edtion AD&D Players Handbook. It describes all the basic information you will need for starting out. Like describing the races, classes, alignment, combat, and all that other good stuff. As far as finding out what a cleric is and a swashbuckler is, there are descriptions when you create a character in the game. Another thing is read the manual. It will give you a very basic knowledge of the rules also.

If I were you, I'd start off with a dwarven fighter. Straight fighter. Nothing fancy here. I still have mine from BG1 and he's one tough little rebel rouser. A lot of people like to concentrate with missile weapons, but I just use this guy to go in up close and personal like to mop shop. Having this tank as your main guy may help keep you from dying as often, plus it doesn't involve all the complications and subtlety required of mages and thieves. Re roll your stats until you can get at least an 18/90 something strength (preferably 18/00, the highest, which shouldn't take but 10 mintutes), and a 19 constitution, and 17 Dexterity. Use all your proficiencies for one melee weapon to get grandmaster status.

You know, to really understand AD&D rules you will really have to play all the previous titles and believe me, there are MANY AD&D games, I know because I collect the AD&D games. About 25 games came before BG2 using the AD&D rules, like heroes of the lance or the very beginning of BG, the Secret of the Silverblades. I'm telling you, as soon as you play 1 AD&D game, you become addicted to the series.

And as for some play advice I would agree with Illusionist, first play a single-player multiplayer game... sounds odd, no? Well, anyway, after you played with your own party you will understand more of the rules and of the game. So I wish you all the fun an AD&D game can offer...