We probably shouldn't get too far off topic (my fault too, I know), but the one thing I'll say is that it's a tradeoff. People hand you nicer items for being good, but you can take them from those same people if you're evil. You can do whatever you want, and people will try to kill you for it, but you can kill them too. Plus, as you've mentioned, you get the most powerful NPCs.

The gauntlets of crushing (+4, I think) are the ultimate monk weapon, by all accounts. You get them in the Sahaugin city by siding with the king against the rebels. As a monk, you're lawful, so that makes decent sense. Also, apparently you can wear Keldorn's armor if you have the right stats.

Sounds like a great choice. That's another class I've been interested in trying. Too bad there aren't any NPC ones.

Anyway, there's no shame in not liking a game, an alignment, a class, or whatever. But for a few more ideas, here are some of my weak BG1 monk's crowning moments of glory:

-Soloing Firewine Bridge dungeon with a potion of stone form, potion of cloud giant strength, potion of absorption, and some heals. If I'd put any points into detect traps, it would have been even better, but I can't say I regret putting them in stealth.
-Wading through Ghasts and Spiders and similar enemies thanks to disease immunity and high saves against spells and death.
-Chasing down Davaeorn and Semaj when they tried to teleport to safety.
-Soloing a Greater Doppelganger without taking a scratch because my fast attacks disrupted both its mirror image and haste spells
-Finally beating my first vampiric wolf at like level 2 because even though my high-dex monk couldn't hit with regular fists, he could avoid or absorb more damage than my other NPCs while they kept landing hits.
-Darting out of a battle, fast-healing with Lay Hands, and rushing back in.
-Running circles around Aec'Letec. Not the strategy that ultimately worked, but fun.

If some classes really do have a harder time than others, there might be something to be said for that too. But I imagine it only gets better from here. Seriously, poison and charm immunity, immunity to nonmagic weapons, quivering palm?

I generally like the way BG handles consequences, and I don't think every game -should- offer a power-trip experience, escapist entertainment or no. Sometimes it's fun, sure, but it'd be limiting if every game did it. But I do agree evil characters get the short end of the stick, simply because there is so very little for them to do.

If there was an equal number (or at least a significant minority) of quests where being an evil bastard gets you a better payoff, it wouldn't matter that you're sometimes end up shooting yourself in the foot. Then, it would feel both realistic and be fun. You could RP your character and win some, lose some.

As it is, if you RP a good guy you win them all and if you RP evil... well, you get to do Korgan's quest and you get a nice sword in the final area of the game. But that's pretty much it.

(Actually, the final area of the game is the one place where I think they got it right. You get something out of being a good guy, but you also have to pay a price. And you get other stuff out of not being a good guy. But neither is objectively greater or better than the other. Both are valid and fun ways to play. It encourages replay and is one of the more engaging sections of the game for that reason. The rest of the game... not so much.)

(Also, it's not entirely fair to single out Baldur's Gate 2 for this. Almost every RPG out there does it. You just know that if you're nice and offer to help for free you'll end up getting more of a reward than if you try to play a character who looks out for number one, let alone one who's actually evil. But that's a whole other discussion.)

Bard. Always Bard.

That's some great spec there. If you fetch balduran's longsword and shield in 2, then beholders kiss your boots while you splatter their brains.

Haha, when I entered that place with Balduran's shield equipped I was shocked over how well it worked. I could just stand there and do nothing, while the beholders exploded around me, amazing.

I would have to say the paladin, because I always tend to play the good guy (with an ocasional bad guy who turns good in the party, Viconia<<<^^), but in gameplay aspects, I LOVE the sorceror. Just plain overpowered when you play the game and know how to do things, and don't get me started on how easy it is to solo once you get some lvls.

Avenger is a secondary favorite class of mine. If you create a druid with high stats in 1 after many rolls, and turn it into avenger in 2, you bypass and cancel out the restrictions of 16/16 max strength/constitution at creation. And despite the description about armors, it can wear both ankeg and dragonscale ones. This class is very underrated; actually is one of the most powerful and effective out there! Is a druid (ironskins, exquisite summons, anti-mage, buffing, healing, arcane spells thrown in and useful ones on top of that that end up in deadly combos***, can morph into powerful melee creatures) that can do anything and everything, except for what a pure mage would. Thing reeks of cheese.

*** Some examples are doom followed by chromatic orb, first casting web then becoming sword spider and charging in the afflicted area and enemies, the improved invisibility allows for some great choices especially for exploration, etc.