I usually don't like replaying RPGs (or most other games) at all. I mostly play them for story and exploration and try to be as thorough as possible, so that on replaying I feel there's too much that's already familiar to me and not enough new to discover to make up for the repetition. It's been quite a while since I played through Baldur's Gate the first time though, and when I did, I was in a hurry to get through it so I could play BG2 which I expected to be more fun, so I guess I didn't fully appreciate it. And I recently got my hands on the Enhanced Edition, so I'm considering whether it might be interesting to replay, just for fun (since so many people seem to like that).

But I think I'd need some plan on what and how to play to avoid repeating all the stuff I've already experienced before. So do you have any suggestions on how to make a second playthrough different than the first? For example:

- Is it worthwhile to play an evil character and go with all the choices that I usually wouldn't have picked?
- Can you somehow trick the game into allowing a full user-created party of six instead of just one hero plus NPCs? I vaguely remember something about multiplayer mode in single player or something, but I'm not sure if that was BG1 or BG2 or both ...
- Is there a class that's particularly enjoyable to play? I don't quite recall what my first character was, but I suppose a simple fighter. (I once tried playing a mage, but one of the very first quests you get - confront an aggressive rogue in a tightly confined space - seemed incredibly frustrating to tackle as a lvl 1 mage.)

Any other ideas?

This should work for both games. Create a custom party in multiplayer, then copy the save to the single player save directory, and load the save there.

Nice. This could make things a bit more interesting. The ability to create and level up your own party is what made IWD enjoyable to me even though I did not think much of its plot. Do you know if this still works in the EE?

I have not played the EE, so I don't know for sure, but my understanding is that it should still work.

Anyway, here are some other ideas.

Challenges:
* Beat the game at level 1. If that's too hard, beat the game at a lower level than usual.
* Beat the game with low stats, perhaps even minimal stats.
* Try any other restrictions you can think of.

Cheaty playthroughs:
* Break the game by playing on story mode, or cheating yourself the killsword (assuming it's in the EE).
* Give yourself HLAs (assuming they're accessible via cheats in BG1:EE). Some HLAs (Deathblow) comes to mind, while others (like War Cry) are rather tame by comparison. If you take this approach, I recommend favoring HLAs that you didn't consider useful.
* Use the Ctrl-J cheat to skip parts of the game, and see what happens.

Others:
* Try learning to speedrun the game. The BG games play very differently in a speedrun than in a casual playthrough, even if you opt to do a glitchless speedrun. (For example, in casual playthroughs, it's typical for the party to stay together outside of combat; in a speedrun, it may be faster to have different characters go different directions to speed things up.)
* Try playing around with glitches. Some are not present in the EE, but some may have been introduced. (This is sort of like using a cheat to sequence break, as mentioned above.)
* Try some of the various mods out there. Some make things easier, some make things harder, others do other things. Depending on which mods you choose and what you find fun, doing so will likely make the game more or less fun.

You should seriously try a dual wielding single class fighter (try the berserker class) you'll be an unstoppable meat grinder. (Pick half orc as race to start with 19 str)

I'm assuming you meant the 2 assassins in Candlekeep. You can just skip going into those buildings or you could leave and if they follow you, lead them to the guards and have them kill them.

Hm, most of these ideas don't sound that much fun to me; I guess I'm just not the kind of player who'd enjoy abstract challenges like that. But I appreciate you taking the time to write them down. Always interesting to see what other players are into. Thanks for the advice!

Since you're playing the EE, if you like randomness (and aren't afraid to reload if things go horribly wrong), you could try playing a wild mage. If you do, I have 2 suggestions:
1. Save frequently just in case something does go horribly wrong.
2. If you get a wild surge, try to play through it; as long as things don't go too horribly, you should be able to make it through, and some wild surges are beneficial. Some of the surge effects are funny, and some can be either good or bad (or both!) depending on the circumstance.

Another idea, if you want to play a less played class combination, is to play a Cleric/Thief. If you do, remember that some thief skills can be used without breaking Sanctuary, raising your Dexterity (via Draw Upon Holy Might) will boost most thief skills, and that half-orcs (which are allowed this multi-class) can start with 19 Strength, giving you a huge bonus to melee attacks. (You can backstab with a club or staff, I believe.)

If you played vanilla (no mods) the first time, then look up the Unfinished Business mod. I gather it adds quite a bit of cut content, and I seem to recall it may adjust a few of the quests in the unmodded version. It will work with non-EE; I don't know if it will work with EE.

There should be plenty of guides around on how to get it installed properly, and several people around here should also be able to answer questions.

Install BG1 NPC Project and recruit Monty and Xzar for the most fun.
For extra lulz recruit the mental midgets Tiax and Quayle.

If not evil, at least try a play-through as a "morally flexible" character. The main story essentially stays the same, but some of the side quests will have different resolutions, and you may find some new quests that you never would have encountered with a character following a good-aligned path. But watch your reputation -- if it gets too low, you'll start being attacked by town guards. You'll need to mix in some "good" quests and/or donate to a temple to keep your reputation from dropping too low.

Perhaps play as a thief who is a chronic kleptomaniac: you have an overwhelming compulsion to pick every lock you come across, and can't help but see what's inside...

Hm. The reason why I even considered replaying is because I happened to get hold of the EE and I thought about seeing for myself how it's like, whether it's really all that bad or whether the experience was different enough to make it interesting again. But it looks like my best bet would be to play the original with a ton of mods for extra content instead, if I really want to discover new things? (Because I think I've seen most of the default stuff, I probably broke into nearly every house without even playing a thief ...)

Btw, this wild mage class, is that something that the EE added and that's absent in the original? And what are HLAs?

many of the original NPCs were pretty crappy too.
Wild mages were added in SoA or ToB

HLA = high Level Abilities. Introduced by ToB

Ok, so that means the wild mage class is not available in the original BG; is it available in BG EE if you don't own BG2 EE? And would it be available in EasyTutu or whatsitcalled, if you merge the original BG + BG2 (I own both of them from GOG)?

BG1 is one of my favorite games of all time which I prefer over BG2. I finished it 5 times; once with classic, 3 times as BGT and again once with BG:EE. EE was the least satisfying experience mostly because of the bugs and poor side characters but it was still good nonetheless.

STORY:
If you rush the game, you'll only witness maybe 10-20% of what's really going on in the world. Remember that BG1 is not a single product. It is from one of the richest game worlds: Forgotten Realms campaign setting of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.

So talk to everyone. Even simple people, nameless NPCs. Talk to same nameless NPC multiple times and they will give different replies, giving clues to what's going on in the world. You can finish the prologue (chapter 1?) in 5 minutes but you can read every book, talk to everyone and it would take an hour. (I am talking about Candlekeep).

I never played "evil" since things get really annoying when armed forces track you everywhere and some shops refuse to sell/buy (if I remember correctly). But that doesn't mean you can not choose evil paths in some cases. Almost every quest has multiple solutions and it is rewarding to witness the outcomes.

PARTY:
Like already said, you CAN play the game with your own 6 characters WITHOUT the multiplayer option. In EEs, there is now an option "Create Party" and you can create 6 characters like you would in multiplayer or Icewind Dale. However, I suggest against it since the side characters are the charm of BG and what makes it more appealing to me than IWD.

Since you mentioned IWD, I have to warn that the playstyle is very different in BG. IWD is a linear dungeon crawler game, with very few quests which are also purely linear. The story is very simple and short. The map is purely linear, only allowing you your next destination. It is a game designed for combat. The story is there just to give meaning to it. The total number of BOOKs in the entire game is 8-10.

Think about everything I wrote here. BG is exactly the opposite. NPCs are meaningful, there are tons of quests (your journal will go insane), Story is huge, you can go almost anywhere in the world. Yes, there is combat, and lots of it but a strategy is applied here unlike IWD where you can kill anything with brute force.

CLASSES:

Please keep in mind that every character is fun and appealing to a certain type of people in BG1. I just installed BGT in Linux and playing as a sorcerer which is lots of fun.

If you want to kill most of the enemies quickly, you can try Archer (Ranger subclass). Range weapons were already opp in normal BG1. I am guessing you would kill an entire army with an Archer before they could even reach you. I have not tried that myself on BG1 since it would spoil the fun but my archer completed IWD with 60% kill rate in a party of 6.

I already wrote too much and do not want to waste your time. In conclusion, BG1 is a game where you should take time and examine the world. Exploration is what makes that game special. Have fun.