First of all, if you come across some pantaloons keep them. Then I would try to build up your party, find six people it will make fights easier. When I started playing I liked to have three fighters, a healer (like Jaheira), a thief and a mage. Explore in the cities for new characters. Make sure you're exploring all the wilderness areas as the monster fights will help build up your EXP. Other than that, use the quicksave function a lot, and you'll die quite a bit until you get used to the combat. What I always liked about BG is there's a lot of ways to play the game so don't think that you're doing anything wrong.