You really can't go wrong with Witcher EE since it's on sale right now. I'd also say Dragon Age: Origins & Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic are beginner friendly & good games.

Fable: The Lost Chapters is very beginner friendly.

I second The Witcher 1. It's a great game, but also simple enough in terms of mechanics and combat, easy to pick up.

Skyrim and Oblivion is good fun, and can be done quite easily

World of Warcraft can also be played quite casually these days, but it's an MMORPG, so maybe not what you are looking for.

I you want something more action oriented, I would recommend Kivi's underworld, or one of the Torchlight games I found it quite hard to start, to be honest. too clunky to be beginner friendly, in my opinion

nvm

Put the crack pipe down. :D

Driftmoon is as far as I remember quite easy.

Really? I can hardly think of a simpler RPG in terms of game mechanics. Straight forward, easy to underst skills to choose from, no dozens of modifiers and numbers, no hundreds of weapons to compare, three easy to understand and manage combat styles, only five "spells"... what could be a problem? Huh?

I keep quitting that game because of the combat! :P It's a mess and requires waaaaaaaaaaaay too much timing. Skip #1 and play W2, they fixed all of that crap. Or just take amok's advice and play Oblivion or Skyrim.

I don't think any of these are 'beginner-friendly' other than perhaps Driftmoon. The reason I say this is even fairly simple ones like Skyrim rely on things like perks and skills that have synergies and may not be that intuitive to someone new to the genre.

Having said that, my advice to the OP is to just pick a game that seems interesting or appeals to you and then just google search about the rule set the game uses, then jump in and give it a go.

aRPGs ("action RPGs", also known as "diablo-like") are very light and friendly versions of cRPGs. Just have a few runs at some of them (stuff like "Dungeon Siege" or "Sacred"), increase you char stats and equipment with some subquests, and then you'll be ready to go on stuff like "Neverwinter Night"... It's a whole spectrum, from actioney to ropleplayey.

But generally speaking, our first games of that sort always were games that would sound standard. There's not much potential for being 'over your head' in cRPG (I can't really think of a title that would be). Many people simply started videogaming with "Baldur's Gate" or "Planescape Torment", for instance, even if they are full-fledged cRPGs. Or even dungeon crawlers à la "Eye of the Beholder". No stuff to be intimidated about, there.

Grand strategy games are what you should be frightened about. But it's a whole other genre. Nevervinter Might ?

I'd recommend Baldur's Gate 2. It does have D&D rules, but it's really not that complicated...you just have to know that the lower Armor class and Thac0 (chance to hit armor class 0), the better. I played it as a teenager when I didn't have much clue about rpgs and really enjoyed it.

I hated combat in the second one. Absolutely loathe it. It's run of the mill mindless slashing. The first one is simple but tactical and unique with a touch of finesse - exactly how playing as a Witcher should feel. I'm not a great gamer at all, but never for a second had I a problem with combat in the first Witcher and the timing it requires.

That's actually true, at least that second part. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing when I started Morrowind, and I quite successfully brute-forced my way through it. At least up to a point. I have not actually finished it, so I can't be sure if my character would cut it to the end, but I've played for quite a long time and was fine. In a way not really knowing much and improvising my way through was half the fun.

when I get my new pc tomorrow I'll have to give it another go, barring that stupid min spec bug hits me.