Okay... My name is Philonious, and I've never gotten past Chapter 2. As a (new) members of these boards it shames me to say it.

One of the biggest problems I have had is picking a class to play through with... Indecision clouds my mind, I can never decide what class to choose, and it is driving me nuts.

My plan is to start from bg and totsc (with or without Tutu) and work my way through the entire series with the same char. I want to use a character who is versatile and powerful, but not too powerful... Most of all I want to experience as much as the games as possible with a single run through. I was thinking F/M/T or Bard but I'm not sure and other options constantly spring to mind.

Please, give me some advice, as I really need to go all the way through it for once.

IMO the three best choices for you would be Cleric/Ranger, Fighter/Mage/Thief, and Blade.

The F/M/T and the Blade will help you experience as much of the game as possible, but they are both very lacking in the one department where the Cleric/Ranger is supreme.
Going through the advantages of all three classes will take a good long time... Try using the search option to find out as much about these classes as possible. There're more than enough info buried around here, I'm sure. :)

I like Fighter/Mage, or even better Kensai/Mage, where you can get the ability to cast spells and still competently defend yourself, unlike Edwin, for example.

You'll have to think about how you like to play, especially in combat situations. You probably don't need to be any kind of mage, though, because there's enough of them in the game. Cleric/Ranger is pretty good too. I also think Druids are alright, because they get some nifty spells that clerics can't cast.

I wouldn't recommend a F/M/T if you're not soloing as you'll level extremely slowly.

A Cleric/Ranger will be able to brawl and cast some nasty spells, so I'll recommend that (about to play one myself).

I recommend a cleric/mage for two reasons: Aerie is annoying, and it is hella fun to whomp through the game with every (almost) single possible spell in existence.

I started a game as a Druid and I find it to be great. A decent fighter with some decent spells.

I'd recommend Cleric/Ranger or Bard later on Blade. I wouldn't go with F/M/T since you're not soloing, the Bard is a better choice then IMO.

Good luck, I recognize myself not beeing able to pick a class.

I think bard is a good choice to play through the whole series. There are only 2 npc bards and your pc will be better than either of them because you can choose your abilities more carefully. All the other classes are more than covered by npcs.

I´ve played this game more times than I can count probably.
But the character I had the most fun with was a Paladin.
If you just roleplay you´ll have a great time. They are powerful, but not to powerful. Pretty versatile since they get some cleric spells.
And depending on what Kit you choose in BG2 they´ll become even more fun.

I'd go with F/M/T. It's a tried and working combination that gives a lot of variation and power. I'm not sure if that, or a short attentionspam in general is your problem though (no offense meant, I know many people once including myself who suffered from that problem). If it's the latter, then no amount of changing classes will really help. You just need to steel your will and go for it all the way through.

I wouldn't go with a bard because he doesn't start shining until ToB. As you're playing the whole trilogy (or quadrilogy I guess, depending on TotSC) then that's a whole lot o' gamin' to do before you get Use Any Item or the brutal traps and Improved Bard Song.

One thing you should do as a first-time-around-er is don't concentrate on doing every single quest there is to do. That just gets tedious for the first time.

And don't worry about picking the perfect class. This game is like a book. It's hard to get past the first couple chapters, but after that you just start flying.

When I start a D&D game for the first time, I almost always start out with some kind of hardcore fighter. Simple hack'n'slash is perfect for learning how the game operates. Rangers are always interesting characters to play.

Thanks for all the suggestions. My issue isn't necessarily short attention span so much as starting and then thinking that I want to do something else... I'm not sure that I will ever have the chance to play through again so I just want to make sure I get the most bang for my buck.

Anyhow, if people want to keep posting advice, that would be great, it'll be a few days before I get a chance to try them out.

Right now I'm thinking half-elf R/C, can anybody tell me why this wouldn't be a good idea? The only shortcomming that I see is that lack of a thief in the entire bunch of games, backstabbing is fun... But maybe not so fun that I need to be a thief. Anyhow, keep it comming.

<grammar>

I wouldn't go with a bard because he doesn't start shining until ToB. As you're playing the whole trilogy (or quadrilogy I guess, depending on TotSC) then that's a whole lot o' gamin' to do before you get Use Any Item or the brutal traps and Improved Bard Song. Bards are actually very powerful even in SoA.
The Skald's song is like a mini-Improved Bard Song, and can be used similarly. The Jester's Song pierces magical resistances and when used well can be used to bring down powerful enemies with hardly any effort. All Bards can use Tenser's Transformation on themselves to become fighters as effective as the real ones in almost every respect, except that they have less attacks per round. With Improved Haste this problem is fixed, and since bards can cast mage spells you can grant yourself nigh-invincibility. The Blade is unique among the Bards since his advantages complement what makes the class powerful.
Finally, all Bards can gain levels like mad and this is complemented by their ability to steal. :)

The Fighter-Mage-Thief, however, is much easier to play than the Bard and in many ways can be considered just as powerful.
Playing a Bard can be hard especially if you haven't devoted yourself to overpowering the class. The Fighter-Mage-Thief comes in a very nice package, and his skills come easily and without all the hassle a Bard player must go through.
F/M/T's are the most versatile class in the game. His skills in fighting, magic and thievery are much more well defined than a Bard's. His main weaknesses, however, are his low levels and slow level-up speeds. Going through the game as one via soloing will eliminate the second disadvantage, but not the first. In SoA, the F/M/T's low levels make his magic skills less efficient than that of the Bard's, despite the fact that he can cast more spells.
As a result he'll not be able to stand on the battleground as long and as effectively as a Bard can, but this is easily compensated by his Thieving skills - Traps, Backstab, etc.
So you get a distinct difference of the F/M/T and the Bard - one is better at thievery and general spellcasting, the other is supreme at buffing and offensive magic.
In ToB this narrows down to the F/M/T being the better spellcaster and best all-around-class, and the Bard having the greatest buffing and offensive potential of all classes.

The R/C is a good class, but playing as one you'll miss out on mage spells and, as you said, thieving abilities. Given the abilities of the class it's actually narrows down to preference, since the class is able to manage very well without them. Would you be willing to sacrifice mage and thief abilities? You won't regret it, as long as they're not the reason why you like the game. ;)

It all depends on the NPCs you bring with you.

I pick my party and decide what the 5 are lacking and go from there.

If they need another tank then I choose a fighting class. If they need a spell caster then choose one of those. If you are evil I strongly suggest a thief class as BG2 has no evil thief at all.

Aces - when I use that tactic, I always end up as theif, since Jan is the only one who can gain thief levels, Nalia and Imoen are too crappy theives and Yoshimo does his thing later on.

I like Bards, since they make more roleplaying than most classes. Almost everytime I play P&P-games, I play some kind of Rougeish class. IMO, Bards give you the most from a roleplaying point of view. But that's me ;)

Actually Nalia, Imoen and Jan are pretty okay as thieves and can detect almost every trap and open almost every locked door/chest in the game. The few times they come across a lock they can't handle, they're always got the Knock spell to fall back on.

Imoen and Nalia can't do much thievery in ToB, nor late SoA either. Nalia almost ain't got no skills since she's lvl 4, and Imoes is not much better. Jan however, is the only one that wiil gain theif levels and be able to take care of late traps, locks and pick pocketing. When I pick NPCs before I pick my own class, I never take Jan since I always have him unless I'm a thief myself, which I'm not very often. You didn't read all.

The problem I have with Nalia and Immy is that, because they're DC and their points are focused on the more important skills, you miss out on some of the really fun aspects of being a thief. There are 5 other skills that those two can't do. Jan is a very decent thief, although his backstab is pathetic.

A Fighter/Thief is a deadly character. Kensai/Thief is good for SoA, but gets a little wussy in ToB.