i was under the impression that each class had minor specialities you could choose. for example, i want to pick ranger, but i was led to understand from a game guide that i then had a choice between something like Archer, Stalker, and Beast Mastery. i'm not seeing the option to choose these subclasses anywhere. also, i read that you could "reroll" and get a higher number of points to distribute, but my rerolls seem to just redistribute the points and not give me added or lesser points.

Those sub-options (called Kits) are not present in (non-EE) Baldur's Gate 1; it wasn't until Baudur's Gate 2 that they were introduced.

Whoever wrote the guide was either using a BG1-in-BG2 mod like TuTu or Trilogy, or was writing the guide for the Enhanced Edition; in either case, the game is running on the BG2 engine (or one based on it); the original BG1 uses an early version of that engine, which doesn't implement such fancy features.

On the other hand, BG1 does allow something that BG2 does not; you can dual-class into a specialist mage.

Vanilla BG 1 doesn't have kits.

Hitting reroll is rerolling each individual stat. The total number of stat points may be higher, lower, or the same as your previous roll, though your rolls are likely to mostly fall into a somewhat small range of point totals (70's to low 90's). That 17 being in your Wisdom instead of Dexterity after the latest reroll doesn't mean the two stats were swapped, just that Dex rolled a 17 last time, and Wisdom rolled a 17 this time. Also, different classes have minimum values in different stats; if the stat rolled was less than the minimum, then the stat is set to the minimum (or possibly rerolled until it isn't below the minimum, I don't remember which). Iirc, Rangers have the highest minimum stat values, so you'll see less variation in stat values while rolling a Ranger.

oh, thanks for explaining. i suppose its better that way, it will simplify the game and make it less confusing. its already a bit overwhelming just in the character creation screen. i remember i gave the game a try about 5 years ago but i was not getting the hang of combat and i struggled with staying alive so i fell out of playing it.

What specifically are you having difficulty with in terms of combat?

I am planning on writing a guide for people who are new to D&D 2.0 rules. It can be very confusing at first, especially since the "lower means better" rule. I will post it as a seperate topic and then give link to it to all newcommers.