Solo barbarian through bgt

[True_Moose]

It gets alot easier in BG2. The thing to remember with barbarians is, although less than fighters, they are only as good as their equipment. You will find your power increase exponentially as you find better weapons. Plus, in BG2, solo melee becomes a better option. Think Rage + FoA + Crom Faeyr. Plus, in BG2, many items have spell effects, like Daystar, which you can use to further complement your melee abilities.

You're going to have to do hit and run, at least until you come near the BG1 XP cap. It's simply not feasible for a solo melee only character to survive in BG1. Once you get higher up in XP, and HP and you get some nice weapons (my advice would be to dual-wield Dagger of Venom and Ashideena, or something like that,) melee becomes a much better options. Gradually, you can wean your character away from ranged combat.