i was thinking of starting a new game with either a fighter/mage, or a thief/mage, or maybe a thief/mage/fighter. then have a party consisting of xian, xzar, edwin or dynaheir, branwen or yeslick, and maybe quale or that bard who wants you to rescue his girlfriend. i want a challenge, i am a little sick of archers and tanks all the time.

who has tried a group of strickly mages?

how far did you make it?

is it even possible given the fact that later on you run into enemies who are magic resistent?

I haven't tried it in Bg1 but I have in BG2 - and you can do it.

Branwen and Yeslick are clerics to they tecnically don't qualify - but Quyale is a cleric/Illusionist and should compliment your party nicely.

And don't forget Imoen - you can dual-class her to a mage which makes her the one of the best mages in the game + if you wiat a few level , you will have enough thieving skill to last you MOST of the way (Durlag's Tower being the exeption).

This will mean that you can be a figther/mage a be in front

And you can always use Garrick - he is not a mage - but he does cast mage spells.

good advice! i forgot that imoen can dual. and you are right, it wouldn't be a genuine mage party with a cleric in it, so i will probably wait for quayle.

who is that little spunky guy in the Gate who wants to rule the city or world? is he a mage, theif, or cleric? i can't remember.

Tiax is a cleric/theif

I think you are talking about Tiax and I think he is a thief.

oh.

well forget him then.

I am currently a Mage/Thief. This class is slow to level up, but i am running around stealthed with a pocket full of fireballs and stinking clouds. The only thing i have yet to try successfully is Vampiric touch Backstab. A party of mages would be great later in the game, but in my opinion, you need at least one tank to take the hits, possibly a Ranger/Paladin as they gain spells later on.

Whats wrong with just a straight fighter

I think Lemernis ran a party with 6 Specialist Mages once, but he didn't finish the game. I tried soloing a Half-Elven Conjurer with 96 points, but ground to a halt when I couldn't kill the Flesh Golems when I was low-level. (You can bypass their Magic Resistance with Darts of Wounding, and the Fleshies have poor Save vs. Death. This didn't work for me, however, because of my pititful THAC0.)

I'd suggest a Thief/Mage, Elven if possible. Not only is it versatile and powerful, but it's a lot of fun when you're a good player.

Alternative idea for a party:
Paladin (Ajantis)
Cleric (Branwen)
Druid (Jaheira)
Mage (Imoen or Xzar)
Bard (Garrick)
Mage/Theif (Imoen or PC)
Each member is one of the 5 classes who can use spells (or spell-like abilities) in BG1. The difficulty will be your Thief skills, but the good side is this party isn't too much of a stretch from the standard Tank setup.

i could probably get away with not having a pure tank. with a fighter/mage as my pc, i can wear helmets, shields, gauntlets, boots, and still cast spells. atleast i think i can?

plus, i can cast armour spells which last for several game hours at a time.

and i think the high hedge sells that (halzgoroth necklace) that adds an ac point.