Yup, the fighter is a very forgiving character, especially at low level or when going solo in some partes of the game. But I'd rather go with the paladin myself for a first run. Almost as fighty as the fighter, and with a couple of fun powers to play with. And a clear "roleplay" directive (you have to play as a knight in shining armor), which can be seen as a disadvantage but is often fun.

And how does the beginner know which spells are useful in the long run? The sorcerer is a one-way road. Really bad if you are still learning...

Druid is a hell to play as a first playthrough, but I'm sticking to my plan.
At least there is the nature flavour to it :p

Yeah, pure druids are underpowered in BG and BG2. BG2 does it worse, though - druids cap out at level 14 in SoA, while other classes get anywhere from 17 to 21 levels. :(

IMHO, a mage is just a spellcasting ranged attacker in most computer RPG's.

In BG1, I've only picked or memorized Shield, Mirror Image and Dispel Magic as defensive spells, and all the rest were attacking spells, with the preference going to area effect spells (starting with Sleep, Web, Stinking Cloud, Fireball / Skull Trap, etc.). I don't actually waste one of the sorcerer's slots on things such as Identify, because I've got so much money that I can identify at will at stores.

Many non-attacking spells in BG1 and 2 are actually quite useless. Has anyone EVER cast "Detect Invisibility", or "Know Alighnment", or "Clairvoyance"? I haven't....

You know which spells to memorize by trying them. That is the nice thing. Trial and Error really works as a mage. You can rememorize and rest as often as you like. As a sorcerer your errors will be permanent

You can but you won't. During the time it would take to rememorize and test every spell seriously you could simply finish the game with your sorcerer and replay with different spell picks. As sorcerer you get to know your spells since you cast them several times, as mage with the few meorization slots you would have to rest almost all the time to get so many spells casted. I'd even prefer a sorcerer if there weren't at least 7 joinable mages or bard NPCs in the game who do their casting with scroll scribing and memorization.

Are you seriously claiming it's a good idea for a first player to choose sorcerer?

1) As fa new player you are (probably) unfamiliar with the AD&D system and not at all skilled in tactics in it, nor do you have knowledge about what enemies will face you where. As a result you will die easily, especially as a squishy mage/sorcerer.

2) You have no/little idea what the different spells do, which are good to pick and you will use a lot, and which are bad. This takes experience. You cannot undo your (bad) choices.

Combined I'd say this makes the sorcerer quite possibly the worst choice for a first time player.

Just a reminder of the post that started this.

For a new player an unkitted fighter type (fighter/paladin/ranger) is probably best in my opinion because of survivability. Other classes can be played later once the player gets familiar with the game. Besides, half the fun is the NPCs and how they interact. And they'll get the new player familiar with the limits and benefits of the other classes.

As I am playing the Enhanced Edition, I have actually started a Dwarven Defender for my first character. I'm enjoying it quite a bit, the hardiness of the class along with being a dwarf is pretty cool in my books. Even though I'm pretty sure that this means I won't be able to port over to BG2 I think I'll stick with it and see what happens.
Keep posting if you'd like, I've quite enjoyed reading what you guys think is interesting in the game, what with sorcerers being better than mages or what-have-you. You say that the Sorcerer is sort of a shot in the dark for a new player and, having experimented with that, I've found this to be true. The combo of learning to play as well as the low amount of hitpoints and the tough decision of what spells to take made it a very rough start for my attempt at a Sorcerer. So I decided to start anew, my new dwarf has about 17 hitpoints and a resonably low AC which has made the game much more enjoyable now that I don't die in one hit. Now all thats left to learn is how to keep my party alive aswell...

Two words: Ranged. Weapons. They're awesome in this game. Just let your dwarf stand up front while everyone else fires arrows/bolts/bullets/darts until they die.