superstande: I found that more you spend hours playing BG, more things become clear.
I remember playing it once for a dozen hours or so in the 90s, and giving up.
Then years later I got into it the second time and spent maybe 20 hours, and gave up again.
Finally got into it the third time, did all the quests I found, went everywhere, turned every friggin' stone (almost at least).
That was the best time I had, and finally completed it on third attempt.
I think it's fair to say it's not an easy game. But once you learn the tricks, it becomes quite fair.
The same was with the sequel - except everything tends to get bigger and harder - but so do the new equipment, spells and such as well. Man some of the stuff in the sequel is mad cool :)
Still haven't played the ToB to finish though... But it is quite wonderful, although tough, as well.
Exploring as much as you can, is my tip.
And understanding the mechanics going under the surface helps as well. What is THAC0 for instance, and how to train your characters on level up... When not to branch into dual classes - can be quite important. Manual should cover plenty of that.
I have a similar experience. I was finally going to play all the games —IN ORDER— to completion this past year. I managed to reach the city before my hard drive died, taking all my game saves. Efforts to restart are now encumbered with the trepidation of grinding through badlands to reach a level where combat is comfortable. (Learning to fight is pretty much accomplished by the time one finishes the mine, bonus points for clearing out the bad guys on the surface — that's a hard fight.)
But the game is always going to be an exercise in micromanagment )character placement, sneak to reveal opposition, good sightlines and clear fields of fire to us, obstructions for them, etc.)
