To me, BG1 was simply too hard. I assume this was because I wasn't familiar with the rules system that good.
I think in later years, the AD&D system in CRPG's have gotten easier to digest -- since it's a little more open and since armor needs bigger numbewrs to be better.
In AD&D 2nd Edition and below, the lower the armor number, the better. You really want to have negative numbers -- BG series is 2nd Edition. In 3rd Edition rules -- which is supported by NWN series and above -- it's reversed; you really want higher positive armor numbers -- and it begins with 0. Much easier to understand.
Also, I think the best parties in AD&D computer games involve this (balanced) party of SIX - a Fighter, Paladin, Thief, Ranger, some sort of offensive Magic user (some sort of Wizard or Mage); and a Cleric.
Every fight was something my party *barely* survived, with sometimes several dead party members ready for ressurrection.
That was the way combat was MEANT to be in BG series.

It was supposed to be very strategic -- with lots of pausing necessary.
You could always have dropped the difficulty from Normal to Easy, in the game options for the BG games.
To me, it was rather a chore than fun, and what I *heavily* disliked was the almost complete absence of social skills and related quests. Almost EVERY quest there was was ONLY solvable through fighting ... And I'm rather keen on social skills, not on fighting ... And in most RPGs the fighting has always been the top priority ... as if "role pleying" means = "fighting" ... Yuck.
Chapter 2 in BG2 is one of the best chapters in gaming history, if you ask me -- it's quite long, too. Basically, you have ONE main goal -- make like 20,000 gold or something to free someone who was captures; which in this game, is a ton of gold. So, the entire chapter is basically you doing whatever side quests and strings of quests you want to try to achieve this crazy goal. Many quests in this chapter, can be finished different ways.
There were few exceptions to that. And this was one point why I liked PS:T so much.
I'd recommend Fallout series (Fallout 1,2, and 3) to you -- since in those games, if you concentrate on Speechcraft skills and Computer/Technology skills, you can run through the games pretty much without needing to use much combat at all.
Also, Deus Ex -- a first-person RPG -- you can finish that game w/ only being forced to kill three people in the game with combat, if you make the "right" choices.