bad_fur_day1: I'd like to see a beginners party get totally wiped by three Caco Fiends in Baldur's Gate 2. I was min/maxing with a walkthrough and a war/mage I barely survived those things.
There are only a few places in Baldur's Gate 2 where that can happen to you. It's true that there are a few quests (like the Planar sphere) that can end disastrously for a low level party, but on the whole the difficulty isn't that great. One just has to frequently save in case something goes wrong.
I played it back in 2001, and had hardly any experience with rpgs before that (only had played Albion), and didn't have that many problems, it's very doable.
But it really depends anyway what the OP wants...single character or party? High fantasy or something darker?