As for mages, the party is currently level 1, and wizards don't need to take the Test until level 4. So it's a ways off. Assuming a mage decides to take his or her Test, we'd deal with that when it came up. How it would be taken care of would really depend on where we were in the game at the time.
The racial hatred is in full swing, as is the prejudice against wizards and Knights of Solamnia. No matter what you play, some NPCs somewhere will probably hate you.

You can get started with rolling over at Invisible Castle. This game uses the 4d6 method, drop the lowest. Once you roll, you post the link here in the forums.
Also, I allow almost any race/class combination in my games, so you can be a dwarf druid or a gnome ranger, or whatever. Kender can't be mages (they lack the mental discipline and patience), but beyond that, pretty much anything goes.