Well, I did think about a cleric as a second character. But clerics are pretty useless early on -- except for healing, of course. I think it would be a mistake to add a second character with so little combat ability. I'd be losing a lot of experience from the fighter and would probably not get enough help from the cleric in combat to compensate for the exp loss. Also, a single character gets all the best gear. With two he'd have to share.
I did run a tank dwarf cleric one time in BG. He worked fine to stand out front of the party and attract all the attacks, but even with the nice magic hammer (was it +2 plus electrical damage?) he seldom hit anything. Just couldn't do much damage. A cleric's THAC0 is just pitiful. Of course, the point of this character was to get room for one more archer in the party by combining the tank character and the cleric.
I've never run a fighter/cleric, but my experience with other multiclasses is that THAC0 and such things are midway between the two classes. Clerics are so bad that I think a fighter/cleric would still not be good enough as a second character in a two-character party. Same weapon restrictions as a cleric, too, so no useful ranged weapon.
Dunno about Pillar of Flame. I don't remember my cleric getting that spell even at level 14 or whatever. Is it maybe a druid spell?
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