I guess some new players are frustrated by the difficulty and randomness of combat in Baldur's Gate. Here I offer tips and suggestions:

1. If fight is tough, avoid it unless impossible. Actually you don't need to fight much before the mine.

Examples: wolves; some bounty-hunters (e.g. the one in Beregost)

2. How am I supposed to obtain exp and gold without killing?
It's easy. BG is different from Diablo and one of the reason is that there're numerous quests that do not involve much combat. And use your thief to steal extensively.

Examples: The chicken quest; Some "Kill-one-monster-retrieve-something" quests; the Marve quest in Beregost. The Candlekeep Inn also has some high value stuffs.

3. About combat.
Sooner or later you are going to do combat.

Rule No.1: Range weapon is the king. The crossbow of speed, e.g. is an excellent weapon and can be more deadly when combined with magical bolts and the Gauntlet of Archery.

Rule No.2: Use your thief to scout the battlefield pre-combat. How many are them? Possible classes? Any traps? So on.

Rule No.3: Use summoning spells extensively. Animate Dead is better than Monster Summoning as skeletons are immune to many spells. Swarm your enemies with summons so that they waste powerful bolts/arrows and spells on the summons instead of hurting you.

Rule No.4: Always target the spell casters and archers first ( Unless they are too weak ). Mages are usually protected with spells (Protection from Normal Missles, etc.) so dispel them first. Then tell your archer to nail them easily. To disrupt enemies' casting, try bolt/arrow of biting or backstab them with the Venom Dagger (bought in Beregost); Magic Missile is also good at that.

Rule No.5: Drink potions and cast protection spells before a major combat. Haste the whole party and protect your mage with spells such as "Protection from Normal Missiles" and "Globe of Invulnerable" ( what to cast depends on different scenarios, use your experince ).

Rule No.6: If you can not beat the tough guys with your fighters, try the Charm spells. Or you can simply lead them around with one of your character while the rest blast them away.

Rule No.7: Area-affecting spells (Stinking cloud, Cloud kill) are very effective. Throw one before the enemy sees you.

I cannot think of more, but I'm sure you will find more during play.

4. Misc.

Sometime you get way-laid and killed. Don't worry, just load the auto-save.

Save often, because some monsters can kill you in a second.

Read the labels on potions before drinking.

Always have some protection potions on hand. It's frustrating when you have to go a long way back just because of a potion.

Don't miss Durlag's Tower, the cream of Baldur's Gate 1, in respect of combat and treasure hunting.

Don't stay up late, it's just a game, although a very fine one.

Good luck and enjoy!

Indeed it is - just don't attempt it before Chapter 7, at least if you value your sanity!

I usually head to Ulgoth's Beard right before I enter Baldur's Gate for the first time, after I have completed every other possible area. I do Durlag's Tower and the other quest that doesn't require BG entrance, then go to the city. I find that i am at max level by the time I finish with Durlag's, and often I have capped my experience too (so, why wait?). I finish up Ulgoth's Beard sometime during he same Chapter, whenever I think of it.

As for general advice for starting, I'll just cut and paste what I wrote in another thread:

I usually duo the first area with Imoen by kiting, then do the same with the High Hedge area. Then I go to Beregost and buy some arrows +1 and/or bullets +1, and kill Thalantyr's two pet Flesh golems. By then, all but a tri-class should be level 3 (at least 2/2 for a bi-class), and Imoen is at or close to level 4. Then I go to the Friendly Arm Inn and pick up the half-elves and/or just go back to the first area and pick up Monty and Xzar. New recruits should come close to matching your level when you add them, unless I am misremembering how vanilla BG1 works (but, regardless, it will make CHARNAME more survivable).

Maybe many will think this is a cheap tactic, but I find it really helps mitigate the aggravation due to unlucky combat rolls at the start of the game. By the end of the game, that extra experience is just a drop in the bucket anyway.

I believe it can be done earlier, say, before Chapter 6?

Yeah, like I mentioned, I usually do it in Chapter 5. However, I don't think there is anything (like a plot door or blocked area) preventing a player from doing it even in Chapter 1. Except the insane number of times they would die, of course ;).

Actually, I wonder what level a player could get to without entering Nashkel and starting Chapter 2... If they soloed or duo'd, I bet they could cap their EXP pretty easily. I think I'll try that my next time through. Been planning to make a cleric/ranger on my next playthrough, anyway, and a cl/ra duo with Imoen seems perfect for this sort of experiment.

I have found a semi-decent way to farm XP as well.
In the Lighthouse area on the west side of the map is the Flesh Golem cave.
If you go in there and kill the golems (I believe there are 4 of them) you get 2000 XP apiece for them.
Once the golems are dead, rest in the cave. about 80% of the time you will be interrupted by a golem that you can kill for 2000 XP,
I was able to gain a bunch of levels that way.
It is best to do this once you have a few levels built up.
Potions / spells that create Haste and Strength are helpful as well.

Yeah, Draxism, that one of the two places I know of that is good to farm experience. The other one is the Ulcaster Ruins; every time you zone into the dungeon, new dire wolves spawn, iirc. I just never bother to farm XP in BG (I always end the game far, far above the XP cap), so it didn't occur to me to do that in my previous post. But, yeah, either of those spots would make maxing out your level in Chapter one fairly trivial (boring maybe, but not hard ;)).

If you want, you can reach XP cap just in Candlekeep. Just keep killing watchers. Since they drop plate armor, you'll also leave a rich man. Stop by the temple on your way out and boost your rep to 18, and you can leave Candlekeep at level 7, with tens of thousands in gold and an 18 reputation. Just don't let one of the tutors see you butchering the watchers, or Gorion will attack you on sight and the game will be very short.

Well, if you are going to to do that, brendon, you might as well just fire up Gatekeeper (or Shadowkeeper for TuTu/BGT), and just give yourself cash, reputation, and max XP. One is a definite cheat, while the other is using an exploit to extremes; neither way is actually playing the game as intended, so you might as well just save time.

I suppose that the other XP farming areas could also be seen as an exploit of sorts, but I think the difference is in the magnitude. At least in the other cases the character isn't doing something that makes absolutely no sense in terms of the plot (not sure what the plot would be like for a psychopathic killer, but it isn't BG1 ;)).