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I just finished Shadows of Amn (for the 3rd time) and started on Throne of Bhaal.  This time around I created two save games at the beginning. One as a starting point so that I can utilize my game from SoA and one for my new all customized party.  I decided to go with an elven fighter/mage.  I almost created a half elven skald, but I realized that by comparison, the only three main benefits would be the skald's song, the "Use Any Item" thieving ability and being able to employ bard-specific items.  However, I would lose out considerably on magic and some fighting abilities (cannot specialize in weapons, missing higher sleep/charm resistance, missing +1 to hit via long/short swords and bows).  So we'll see how this run feels.  With the saved game in place, I could always go back and create a skald (I managed to save some bard specific items from SoA, which is part of my motivation for creating a bard).

That said, I wanted to share some thoughts after this last SoA run:

• I think the game purposely throws out dice rolls.  Some parts of the game was ridiculous.  For instance, I always failed my saving throws vs Finger of Death, unless I had magic resistance.  However, my death saving throws for many of my characters were really high.  Also, I cannot fathom how the hell goblins, orcs and other low level creatures can even hit my party members who have really low AC's (like -3 and beyond).  In a paper/dice setting, no low level creature would ever be able to hit someone with that low of an AC.
• The way the game manages to figure out what weaknesses your character has is shitty.  For instance, I'll buff my party with virtually every known buff spell, but I might forget say Chaotic Command or Resist Fear.  Some how the stupid game's NPCs figure out to cast a Chaos or Symbol of Fear.  WTF?  Should a game automatically know how to respond in those instances?  I know that they're trying to up the difficulty, but in a "real" scenario would a mage or cleric know what to do and have the perfect response?  Seems bogus.
• The game was shipped horribly buggy.  It's sad that BioWare no longer supports the game because it feels as though there's potentially a few major blockers.  An example was this troll Grae that I had to kill for my Limited Wish quest.  I think one of my characters had Crom Faer and hit the troll, instantly killing her.  As a result, the script was ignored that revealed the ogre magi for the next step.  When you'd go to the area of the ogre magi, he doesn't appear.  Fortunately, there is a console that allows you to re-spawn the troll, but this is just sloppy programming and testing.
• The path AI is just annoying as hell.  One thing I prefer doing in an area (that is cleared) is to use the map and click to a destination.  Quite often, if the destination is far off, the characters would try finding the shortest route possible.  Depending on the speed of the characters and when the party arrives, you might encounter situations where a party member remains in his/her original spot.  My solution: give everyone the Boots of Speed.  Otherwise, it just feels like a root canal operation.
  
• No easy way to self-fix broken parts in the game without a complete restart.  Obviously, you should save often.  But sometimes, you might err and save after something went horribly wrong.  However, you may not realize at that time you missed something.  So if you were to restore the game, you might have to repeat huge sections, which feels like smashing your toes with the blunt body of a guitar.  Usually, if you're lucky, someone else has already encountered a similar problem and you can use the SetGlobal console command to fix it.  However, this part is so poorly documented that it takes a bit of searching to fix a major problem.  One example is the stupid Haer'Dalis quest, where if you have the portal gem but don't have a free slot to take him into your party, you lose out on the quest entirely. 
  
• Fixing broken NPCs.  On some rare occasions, I would accidentally kill one of my NPCs.  For instance, Jaheira.  If that happens, I think they leave the party permanently.  You don't even get a chance to resurrect that person.  Also, I think if you try to respawn the NPC, it might be damaged such that you cannot talk to them again.  Like Haer'Dalis.  I really wanted to shoot someone when that happened because I had to re-do the whole quest.  Really frustrating.
• Why the hell did the remove the archer and stalker dual class capability in Throne of Bhaal?  Of course, you could only dual class to a cleric, but it seems silly to do something like this.
• Mage/Druid?  If you read the SoA manual, there's an odd reference to the possibility of becoming a mage/druid.  Maybe even a fighter/mage/druid (that would be cool).  This reference is just about as obscure (and intriguing) as the old Ultima 3 reference where you could get NPCs to join your party.  Too bad they didn't implement this feature because that would add another dimension to multi-class possibilities.
• Buffing your party before a major fight really does help.  Sometimes, I get really lazy and just send my guys into a major fight.  These days, if say I'm fighting a dragon or a major mage fight, I'll max out my buffs.  Most probably don't help much, but definitely the resistance buffs are absolute must-haves.  I like keeping True Seeing, Chaotic Commands, Resist Fear and Resist Fire/Cold memorized at all times at the very least. Usually, I'll put up Stoneskin, Barskin, Bless/Chant/Aid, Globe of Invulnerability, Fire Shield along with the previous ones for starters.  At higher levels, I started using Simulacrum, Summon Deva, Shield of the Archons as well. But for instance, I managed to take out the Black Dragon in Suldanesslar really quickly (especially with all my equipment I accumulated at that point).
• Dual Class Kensai/Mage, Wizard Slayer/Thief and Berserker/Cleric are just sick when their fighter class becomes active again. I had imported these three as fresh level 18s from ToB and immediately dual classed them to level one.  Fortunately, they leveled REALLY quick (having my mage learn all those spells helped).  I think by the time they reached level two of Irenicus' dungeon, they were already around level 5 or 6.  However, it was a real struggle recovering their inactive classes.  My Kensai/Mage took the longest, but managed to get back his Kensai class by the time we reached Suldanesslar.  However, he would struggle big time in melee fights.  Once he got back his Kensai class, his THACO went to -8 (or something ridiculous) since he has Grand Mastery in Katanas (I gave him Celestial Fury and the other major Katana you get from that merchant in the Adventure Mart).  You could kinda hear the rest of that digital world murmur a collective "oh shit" when he hit level 19 ;)  Getting my Wizard Slayer class back wasn't as bad as a thief, but the real struggle was not being able to use non-weapons and armor (as per the Wizard Slayer kit).  However, when he hit level 24, immediately, I snagged "Use Any Item" and boom!
• The Ranger/Cleric multi-class is a load of fun as they say.  My Berserker/Cleric is the main armor tank and uses a shield (for the moment) while my Ranger/Cleric has Master level specialization in dual wield along with specialization in flails and hammers (she has slings as well, but that's important at the moment).  As a result, she uses the Flail of Ages and Crom Faer, while my Berserker/Cleric employs the Mace of Disruption +2.  I keep the Shield of Harmony and Sentinel +4 around just in case.  For the most part, I just let her dual wield.  What was a nice little bonus that I discovered was that Ranger/Cleric combos get access to BOTH druid and cleric spells due to the way the Infinity Engine works.  That just rendered the fighter/druid class irrelevant as the only benefits by comparison would be shape shifting, greater elemental summoning, a few weapon losses (scimitar) and (if the fighter/druid is your main class), the Druid Stronghold quest (but that one seems kinda bland).  However, you'll still level your cleric side up faster than the fighter/druid and you'll get dual weapons specialization for free.  So you might as well go with the Ranger/Cleric combo.
• Turn Undead is AWESOME.  Having two high level clerics in the party allowed me to nuke a ton of undead easily.  I think in two circumstances, I even destroyed some liches (it was either that or my Mace of Disruption).  At any rate, this was one ability I had not really used in my first few runs (too much point-n-grunt mentality).  Also, it made me realize why a fighter/druid isn't as good with this party as the berserker/cleric and ranger/cleric classes.
• I dislike the NPCs in the game.  I think if I wanted to explore all the dialogs, I could probably find some site that shows the various combinations.  That said, I don't like the classes that BioWare had offered in the game as NPCs.  Also, most are pretty weak or bland in terms of abilities.  However, I think they might've made the NPCs a little more powerful in some ways.  For instance, Korgan seemed fairly strong despite not having as good of stats compared with my customized characters.  I'm uncertain if they made it so NPCs would gain more bonuses than custom characters.  But I just found it funny how my guys would die so easily or get picked on by enemy spell casters.
• Is there an icon for invisibility?  For instance, when my Kensai/Mage equipped the Staff of Magi, it didn't seem as though he was invisible.  Am I missing something?
• The Cloak of Mirrors visual effect is annoying.  The Cloak of Mirrors is one of the best (if not THE best) cloaks in the game.  However, when you equip that item, you can't see shit around you.
• It's really hard to tell what kind of protections people have on them. I wish there was a way you can see what defensive spells mages cast on themselves so you know how to counter them.  The visual cues aren't that great imo and are more confusing than anything.
• Mages are way too powerful in the game.  The most annoying thing about mages is that almost instantly when you encounter them, they'll put up a ton of protections.  In normal AD&D, there's a cast time for these spells to go off.  In this game, it's virtually automatic.  And it seems like there's a ton of archmages in the game.  I mean, way too many can easily cast Time Stop or other high level spells.  WTF? Now, the really annoying part is that if you kill these supposedly high level mages, they just drop a shitty non-magical staff (at best).
• Umber Hulks are also way too powerful. Almost always their confusion ability works on a good number of party members.  It seems as though saving throws in a true AD&D sense have no meaning in the game.  But Umber Hulks usually are shitty creatures.  How they hell did they become so powerful?
• Way too many vampires. Yes, one of your main enemies is a vampire.  But I've rarely seen more than one or two vampires in any AD&D campaign.  That's usually due to game balance. 
• Be wary of munchkin customized kits.  Since I was looking for some game mods, I came across some people who took it upon themselves to create new kits.  None of them looked appealing.  Worse yet, some of them looked like munchkins took hold.  I don't mind if the kit comes from one of the kit manuals (never liked those to begin with though).  However, I saw a few kits that were just nonsense, doing things like subtracting massive bonuses from stats, limiting armor and just rearranging the components of most character classes.  The thing about a kit is that you can't go too overboard with it and have to balance it out while making it make sense.
• Versus Books are AWFUL.  I think when the game came out a long time ago, I actually picked up the hint books (probably because there weren't a lot of good hint sites around at the time).  However, the Throne of Bhaal hint book from Versus is just terrible.  It's horribly edited and has tons of mistakes.  For instance, according to the book, you could create a character that started (incorrectly) with 2 million XP (in reality they start with 2.5 million XP), save the game, dual class your character, export him then start a new game, giving that character 2 million XP.  This DOES NOT occur in the game.  You do not automatically gain 2 million XP when you use this tactic.  Also, some sections had repeated information while other sections remain incomplete (like the romances, stronghold quests and the Limited Wish quest).  Or some of the most offensive mistakes were incorrect item locations, improper labeling of traps and completely incorrect information regarding high level class pools.  An example is that your thief starts gaining access to the thief pool at level 24 not 25.  I have some of their WoW books and find them to be irrelevant, especially with the Cataclysm.  With regards with Baldur's Gate, it feels as though the writers/editors played through the game a few times really fast without understanding every little detail.  Either way, Versus Books, from my experience, aren't worth anything.  If you need help, the online Walkthroughs are far better.
• Get the unsupported fix patch!  It's totally worth it since it fixes some crucial bugs.

I think the game's bugginess frustrated me more than anything.  I found a cool patch that isn't an official release from BioWare that supposedly fixed some of these problems.  But I still think there's a lot that needs to be addressed.  I still enjoy the game though, which is why I've played it so much recently.

One thing that I would like to add is that I wish you could take up to eight characters in the game.  I did a little searching to see if this is possible.  My reasoning is that if you look closely at the right character portrait bar, you'll see enough space for two more slots potentially. Unfortunately, the maximum of six characters is hard coded into the game (what a shame).  I really wish I could bring two more characters though.  Sure, you'll lose out on some XP, but considering I imported three level 18 fighters, I'm gonna max out early in XP potentially.  So I don't mind slowing down if it implies doing more with the game.

That said, given my current party configuration, what are some potential extra two party slots?  Well, we can look at this in a few ways.  First, if you could do this from SoA, you could add more NPCs.  That would allow you to do more NPC quests and get into a romance (which I didn't this time around since I only took Nalia and Imoen).  Given my "perfect party" of kensai/mage, berserker/cleric, wizard slayer/thief, half elven ranger/cleric and undead hunter, having the extra three slots would allow me to take Imoen, Jaheira and someone else.  Maybe a Skald or elven fighter/mage.  But just choosing an extra NPC, I would go with a pivot slot, which would allow me to bring in NPCs with their quests.  Truthfully, I really don't like the NPCs from SoA outside of Jaheira so I might take Keldorn (I'd give him the Silver Sword and have my Undead Hunter wield the Holy Avenger).  Once I'd hit ToB, I would replace Keldorn with Sarevok.

If I just took seven (wow!) customized characters and left one slot open for NPCs, I would probably add a Skald and a Berserker/Druid (and dual class them from level 9, giving him/her Grand Mastery in Scimitars).  This would allow me to not have to worry about taking Cernd or Jaheira to complete the Trademeet quest.

If this were ToB and I didn't take any NPCs, the last spot might go to an archer or bounty hunter with the full party being Kensai/Mage, Undead Hunter, Berserker/Cleric, Wizard Slayer/Thief, Half Elven Ranger/Cleric, Half Elven Skald, Berserker/Druid and Elven Archer or bounty hunter (probably dual class him with some other fighter or mage component).  That would be some nasty party.

Having a party of all customized characters though might be a bit overwhelming (even for someone like myself).  The additional three slots would probably be better used through having NPCs in the party.  Having everyone but your main being an NPC too is overwhelming because none of the main NPCs are that great or unique (at least in my view).  It's more for having the character interaction.

That leads me to partly believe the game would've been more interesting if it were designed with five PC slots and three NPC slots.  The old Gold Box games allowed for two NPC slots, which I thought was great.

At any rate, all this customization, bugginess and mods made me wish that the game had a well documented API and/or more expansions for content.  I know some people put out some of their own modules (not sure how they did that), but the basic game is a lot of fun to play.  Unfortunately, I think in Baldur's Gate 1, you didn't have all the neato kits so trying to link up these two games and the expansions isn't as compelling.  Also, I really hate the imposed level caps.  This is more of an issue with the way the AD&D rules work than the engine itself.  But it feels that you're rushing to hit the 8 million XP cap just in two games.  I would've liked seeing more expansions to give you more abilities and progression beyond level 40 so you could explore all these characters.  If not that then, give eight characters for a party maximum to experience more content and slow leveling down a bit.

Now, you can say that Neverwinter Nights is the response.  But I just am talking about using what exists with the Baldur's Gate rules engine since it's still a fun engine to play with (except the dice rolls...grrrrrr...).  For instance, rather than restarting the game with Irenicus' wonderful intro dungeon every time, it would be cool to have something like the old Bard's Tale Adventure Guild where you can create more characters despite being at different stages in the game.  Then your higher level characters can "mentor" (i.e. carry) your lower level characters as they progress in the game.

Anyway, still having fun with this game.  If I manage to finally complete ToB, I'll probably give Neverwinter Nights another shot.