I also find the game mediocre, mostly because of the game not telling you anything how it works and therefore being ridiculously difficult..
It's like BG1 and BG2 told you what to do after you finished prologue. Come on man!
No it didn't. Yet I never used protective spells, never understood any of the game mechanics, yet completed the game on normal with not a whole lot of resistance. I recently played it on hard and spend a little more time with the underlying ruleset, still did not use actual skills once, apart from maybe true sight.
