I will say: Fallout 2.
It have great rurn-based combat. Also becouse it is a non-fantasy game this could be a nice jump from fantasy world's

neverwinter nights

Don't forget about Arcanum! Just make sure to get the unofficial fixes first...

"The combat has a little bit of a learning curve"...

I feel moved to share my first (and only) experience with BG1. I installed it, played it, LOVED it... Right up until the VERY FIRST fight, at which point the enemies proceeded to mop the floor with my entire party. Killed everyone stone dead. That's too steep a learning curve, IMO. I uninstalled the game and haven't played it since.

you could lower the difficulty of the battles. I mean its in the options menu.

I don't remember if I did, but I certainly didn't raise the difficulty. I don't think it's a matter of the actual combat being too difficult (meaning I don't think the enemies are too tough), it's more a case of the combat mechanics and interface being rather complicated and having NO tutorial whatsoever. It's just "Well, here are the first enemies. Good luck finding out how everything works".

Ummm... Baldur's Gate HAD a combat tutorial. In the starting town. Among the side-quests.

As for recommended CRPGs? Well, considering what you've listed as your influences, I'd say Neverwinter Nights would be your best bet for a start. A lot of people seem to not like the vanilla single-player campaign, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. Despite being released afterward, it would serve as a good gateway down to the classic Infinity-engine titles, as it's (A) easier, (B) more modern in presentation and mechanics, and (C) still to this day got a large community surrounding it, with enough fan-made and official expansion content to choke Galactus.

From there? Baldur's Gate, definitely.

OTOH, going more of the Diablo-route, Divine Divinity really isn't bad, if hard as hell. I found the sprites to move at an odd framerate, giving the game a bad puppet-show vibe, but the gameplay is solid, and the voiceovers are mostly hilarious. Sacred's supposed to be pretty good if you can get into it as well, but beyond the same puppet-show problem it had the additional complication of being about as "meh" as it can get when it comes to drawing your attention.

It saddens me that only about 5 games are mentioned over and over again in these CRPG topics.

Play Fallout 1 first, then Fallout 2, they're the way to go for starters.

And in Fallout 1 you get to hear Keith David voice one of the NPCs, who I noticed is your avatar. Awesomefreakingtastic Keith David. :)

Learning curve isn't the problem. It's the rules system the games use. AD&D2ed breaks down completely below character level 2-5 (depending on how much you minmax), and progressively breaks down above character level 15'ish.

Depending on how good you are at playing the rules (as opposed to the game), it means that as much as the entire first half of BG1 (that's a LOT of hours) can be a complete cluster-fuck.

However, it's a good enough game that it is worth taking the time to build the right character and build it right, and suffer through the hour or two worth of constant death-by-single-unlucky-dice-roll it takes to get to level 2-3.

I thought I'd resurrect this thread to report back that I started with BG1 only a week ago. I'm about halfway through it, and it's already one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had. I can't believe I waited this long to play an Infinity Engine game.

I know this is roughly as good as it gets, but I'm so excited to play all the rest of the RPGs from this era. My plan is to follow this up with Planescape Torment, then IW and NWN. I may throw in Arcanum or Temple of Elemental Evil along the way as well.

Not a bad plan at all :) I played the IE games in order but that's only because I played them as soon as they came out, so it was : BG1, IWD, Planescape : Torment, BG2, IWD2. I've yet to play ToEE or Arcanum. NWN was a big disappointment for me after the IE games but it's a much better experience if you play it with mods according to reports. The single-player NWN campaign is one of the most lifeless and soulless gaming experiences I've ever had. I've shunned Bioware's stuff ever since because I believe that the great writing and all the personality which was so present in the IE games vanished when Black Isle Studios left the scene. If you play Fallout New Vegas, which some of the Black Isle team were involved in making, you can experience some of Black Isle's depth and humour again in a "modern" game.

A lot of people disagree on a lot of things, but they all agree that Fallout is pretty fun, so that's my vote: FO, FO2, or even tactics.

It HAS to be Baldur's Gate - the whole series - in my opinion. It seems to be fashionable recently to diss the BGs in favour of something else, usually P:T, but I've played them all several times and even studied philosophy at university many years ago (and P:T is all about philosophy) and if you gave me a desert island game choice mine would still be BG1+2. None of the IE games is "shallow", they are all "deep". Planescape : Torment is merely the most explicitly "deep" of all the IE games, but the same intelligence and the same writing lies behind all of them. It's a matter of personal choice ultimately when you are deciding between the IE games. The Icewind Dales have a special charm too which makes some people raise them above even the BGs or P:T and frankly I kind of understand, even if I don't totally agree. The Icewind Dale games have a wonderful atmosphere. These five games (the IE games) are the best games ever created imo, though I'm biased towards RPGs, turn-based combat.

I would recommend Neverwinter Nights 2 Platinum. I just finished the whole thing and really enjoyed it.