Wild Mages are available in BG:EE even if you don't have BG2:EE. There's even a new (EE-exclusive) recruitable character who is of this class.

They are also available in mods that put BG1 into the BG2 engine, including EasyTutu and Baldur's Gate Trilogy. (One way to think of it is that you aren't playing BG1 anymore; you're playing a total conversion mod of BG2 that converts the game into a BG1 remake.)

This holds true for many other additions, including kits, the 3rd edition classes (Barbarian, Monk, Sorcerer), the half-orc race, and even some new spells (though finding scrolls for them might be a problem).

HLAs, while introduced in Throne of Bhaal, are accessible early via cheats. Of course, since they're designed for high level play, many of them will break the game at low levels. (Greater Deathblow, which instantly kills anything up to level 12 is one example here; it's use is limited in ToB because of the number of high level enemies, but in BG1 very few (if any) creatures in the game are high enough in level to survive it.) Also, the HLA spells available to spellcasters are useless at BG1 levels because you can't get to a high enough level to cast it. With that said, there are a few HLAs that many players consider useless because they're rather weak; some of them might be fair if you could get them at low levels.

I think most mods that combine the BG1 and BG2 make all the later additions available from the start. This includes new classes like monk, barbarian, sorcerer and wild mage, class kits and HLAs

The EE adds some new NPCs that you can recruit and some quests revolving around them, and I think that's about it. Iirc, they had some restrictions where they couldn't change content that was in the originals. I don't recall whether they were allowed to add new quests that didn't revolve around one of the new NPCs. They did add a few more class options (like Shadowdancer).

It was a ToB class.

HLAs (High Level Abilities) give each class new powers as the character climbs into epic levels, starting with their next level after reaching 3 million XP.

It is available in the non-EE if you merge BG1 and BG2.

Thanks! I've played BG and all of the Infinity Engine games before, and all of them with a completionist approach, trying to discover as much as I could in one single playthrough, so I don't think I've missed a lot of the story content that wasn't related to exclusive choices (such as choosing evil paths or having specific companions in the party at specific times). Creating a party of six was just one idea, of course if I'd play with a mod for more companions and more banter and such it wouldn't make a lot of sense to go with that idea. And I'd never go with such an approach if it was my first playthorugh. But tbh, there weren't a lot of companions in BG that I actually liked all that much (the only ones I recall liking are Imoen and Edwin, and to a certain degree Minsc, I guess). Archer sounds like it might be fun to try, I didn't know they were overpowered, and I might have never considered it myself, thanks for the suggestion!

I was also curious about the general feel being a bit different, all that minor stuff like different colored circles under your party members, journal entries notifications popping up etc. Which I realize is probably a sacrilege to hardcore BG fans and could go both ways for me: I might find it nice and amusing or end up hating it as well. I just wanted to go in with an open mind and decide for myself. But yeah, changes in the UI and such are just superficial coating and might not be enough to hold my interest for long if everything else is the same (or worse).

Archery is powerful in BG1 because a lot of enemies don't have ranged attacks (unless they also have bows). So you can kite them and fill them full of arrows while they slowly trundle toward you. Polar Bears are a lot less scary if they can't attack you.

I gather that change to movespeed in Tutu/etc and in EE has weakened the archery tactic some.

If you haven't bought the EE games yet, then you can get some idea of how things look by searching for screen shots.

Try writing backstories for your characters. You can start by asking "why did my character pick this class". From there you can try to come up with concepts for future characters. You can throw in some RP-ing rules too. As a general rule my party doesn't go out at night. I do break that rule often though. Mostly for quests and sometimes for other reasons.

Yeah, that's probably a good idea, considering that I've already seen most of the stuff anyway. Just doing what I feel like this time.

* The game rewards good behavior. You will have less XP by playing "evil" so unless you like kicking puppies, the answer is no.

* Hit Create Party in the character creation screen.

* Dual class fighter/cleric is fun if you are willing to edit your config file ranger/cleric can be fun.

Aw, that sucks. But I do remember that evil choices in Bioware games are often so stupid that they're not really a choice at all. I just thought it might be fun to hang out more with the comically bad guys this time or become more like Sarevok ...

You can still get plenty of XP playing the evil route (you end up killing the same enemies anyway, sometimes more) - not always the best monetary rewards but it is fun using different characters (Edwin is the best mage out there, Xzar and Monty are funny - especially if you add the BG1 NPC project mod for party banter).
I'd say it's worth a try (my first playthrough was neutral-good, my 2nd was neutral-evil - both were fun).
The main events stay the same, just some quest resolutions change and you choose some different dialogue for your character's motivation.
(Your PC will also get different bhaal powers depending on your reputation (rather than alignment) in BG1.)
It can be tricky to keep your reputation high enough to avoid getting attacked on sight by town guards - so steal as much as you can to sell so you can donate to those handy temples (or role-play doing something good for the selfish purpose of bolstering your reputation - depends on your character).

(There's also the 'virtue' mod - separates 'reputation' from 'virtue' so your evil NPCs realise that they're doing bad even though the reputation might be a little higher, but I haven't tried it myself)

The Virtue mod only works for BG2.

Ah, okay - never mind then.

Mods are a usual way to add spice up a beaten game.
Also, you can try to ironman. You're virtually guaranteed to fail at first... but it does provide different experience.