Greetings delta5ff

I personally would recommend you to go with Option 2: Human Paladin with a Great Sword focus.
I always went with the Cavalier: a) You don't need to use any ranged weapons so the disadvantage with the Cavalier is pointless. Your team mates will assist you in the ranged manner. b) (Advantages) Remove fear spell, immunity to charm, morale failure, fear, and if I remember correctly even poison. A 20% resistance to fire and acid.
I don't wish to spoil anything for your adventure so read with caution for any spoilers! <><><><><
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In BG2 you will encounter a maze like area filled with traps and very powerful creatures. This is where the fear immunity helps a lot.
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Why go for Great swords?
Great swords deal a lot of damage, there are some nuances with them that may affect your play through, like the obvious in-ability to use any kind of shields. Str (Strength) requirements, slow hits.You will encounter foes that will drop unique Great Swords that will technically become the most powerful weapons in the game. <small hint: that's were the 20% fire immunity helps>

A paladin can stand for himself easily. I'll try to explain in detail.

Lay on Hands
Heals the creature the paladin player touches for 2 HP/level (each time you level up, the more hp (health points) you heal). A paladin of level 1 will only heal 2 hitpoints, but this ability scales all the way to level 34, granting up to 68 HP recovery on touch.

Detect Evil
This ability is like the spell Detect Evil but cast at faster speed. All evil aligned creatures will glow red.
This spell helps with some of the quests.

Protection From Evil
This ability is like the spell Protection From Evil but cast at faster speed. All evil aligned creatures will receive a -2 penalty to their attack roll when targeting creatures protected by the spell, the protected creature receive +2 bonus to all saving throws from when targeted by evil creatures and also prevents creatures summoned by spells such as Cacofiend, Summon Fiend and Gate from noticing the protected individual.

Saving throws bonus
Paladins gain a passive -2 bonus to all saving throws

Cavalier is the best pick because other choices have severe disadvantages.
Inquisitor: No Turn undead, no Lay on Hands, and can not cast cleric spells
Undead Hunter: No Lay on Hands (Also, if Lay on Hands is cast on a undead it will instead damage them) so when the player is unable to cast LoH, then it leads to many disadvantages if one wishes to play solo. or If one has a hard time deciding who will join thee.

and the last one, Black Guard. (Enhanced edition only)
Only evil alignment Everyone will hate you, Extreme buying prices from vendors, and small selling prices. If thee continues with the evil alignment then you will be hunted down.
No detect evil, No Protection from evil
No LoH

So If you plan to play solo, or with a party. Go for the Paladin, Great Swords, and Cavalier.

You can experiment with different classes, races, etc. Hope this helped you

gogwitcher300

Cavaliers can't use bows so I don't recommend them.

But neither can Fighter/Clerics, for that matter.

(Well, technically I believe a Cleric->Fighter dual-class can use bows until their Fighter level exceeds their Cleric level, but that's a rather unusual set-up that is generally considered sub-optimal due to lower HP, and the ability to use bows is only temprary, anyway.)