What classes are good for a solo run?

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I was thinking a mage or monk but am not very sure. What do you guys think?

 

Personally i'd take a sorcerer over a mage - you get less diversity, since they only get to pick a set amount of spells, but they are a lot more flexible because you can cast any of the spells you do know as many times as you have spell slots for that level.
there's only so much spells that are really useful each level anyway - all other spells you might occasionally cast for utility you can simply cast off scrolls. even with spells that have a limited amount of scrolls available for them throughout the game you could use the project image/simulacrum trick to prevent them from running out.

However, going on a solo run you might want your PC to have thief levels - both for lockpicking (though you can bash open a lot of locks if your strength score is sufficient) but more importantly for finding and disarming traps.
I'm currently playing through BG:EE with a thief/mage character solo, planning on exporting him to BG2:EE and continuing my solo run there and he's working out pretty well.
Though lacking a bit in melee capabilities in BG:EE, the buff spells available keep me alive long enough that it doesn't matter overly much, as long as i save my damaging spells for the tougher encounters.
I can't wait till i have him in bg2 for some mislead+backstab fun though - infinite backstabs for the win

 

You can do it with any class, but spellcasters work best, usually multi- or dual-classed. Sorcerer, figher/mage, kensai/mage, ranger/cleric, mage/cleric, blade, etc.

You don't actually need any thief abilities. Traps are laughable in BG2, it's only worth disarming them for XP, and most locks can be forced or bypassed.

 

As Keneth says, you can solo with any class. I've found it to be easiest with a sorcerer, but a R/C is a very strong combination as well. Thief levels can be convenient for certain locks, but in general a F/T multi- or dual-class can be very strong as well. Hide in shadows and backstabbing with a fighter's AC can make many fights a lot easier.

The ability to disable traps is especially useful if you would like to also solo BG. Though if you also want to go through BG solo, a sorcerer is definitely harder than anything with some type of fighter levels. For BG, I think the easiest solo for me was with a half-orc F/T multi-class. A R/C was pretty easy as well, but a tad harder on some of the fights. For a mage or sorcerer, getting the wand of paralysation (or really all wands) should be of the highest priority.

Note that a solo without thief or mage levels would probably miss out on at least the upgraded runehammer +5, as the rune needed for the upgrade is in a locked chest that no amount of bashing is able to open (not even with 25 STR). This is rather vexing for a R/C, for instance.

 

BG is considerably harder without a thief, yes, although a cleric's ability to detect traps and prepare for them helps (but isn't necessary either).

 

I just finished my solo run through BG:EE with my thief/mage, and having thieving skills made my life a lot easier, especially when tackling durlag's tower.
I used EEkeeper to give my PC a kit and make him a thief/wild mage - makes your magic a lot more unpredictable, especially nahal's since you'll only ever be able to get lesser chaos shield in bg1 - luckily i managed to summon a nabassu only twice during the entire game, polymorphed myself just two or three times and petrified myself once.
One memorable wild surge for me was when i tried to cast sunfire (fireball centered on caster) through nahal's reckless dweomer, it failed - but the roll caused the blast effect, doing exactly the same as the actual spell would've done. Nothing spectacular, but i thought it was funny when it happened to me.
Currently doing a second playthrough of BG:EE with the same character, this time with a full party - There's a few npc's i usually never pick up during my playthroughs that i want to give a shot, and do the neera romance since i haven't done so before - time for the wild mages to have a wild surge of their own if you know what i mean .
Also i kinda want to see if the potential for wild surge hijinks increases with a full party and 2 wild mages - and of course, getting twice the amount of stat manuals/tomes is also a nice added bonus.