Seems that you are indeed, maybe post your system and video stats so the rest of us can see what works.
You don't have the spinning monks at the church???
I like to play thru with no advantage too but using freeze came about as the only way to avoid a CTD on some bad guy encounters. If we get a patch, I will play thru without it . . . really enjoy the game but being focused on avoiding CTD has taken much of the fun out of the game.
I learned early on that DD did not allow you to take on large groups. I lured the regular orcs away, dispatched them, went back for more . . . no need for freeze on them. When the orc chief is the only one left, I would load the poison weapon skill, right click, than load the freeze skill, leaving me with left click sword . . . right click freeze. That strategy allowed me to continue without being preoccupied with CTD. Not sure when I started doing that, trial and error ??

Did you check the minimum requirements for the game? Because if they're higher than what you've got, it's your own fault for not thinking to read them first.

Uhh... did you read my post where I posted what I have. It is all beyond the game's requirements.

Okay, well now this game is completely unplayable. I got to the part where you have to end the war between the elves and dwarves and when I get to the cave with Josephina it crashes every single time she finishes talking. I dont even get a chance to try to freeze her or anything because it crashes immediately, so now I cant even finish the game.

Sounds like another cut scene crash that can't be avoided. Haven't played for several days and have not reached that point so I don't know if it is specific to your system or affects all of us. Probably hear from others as they reach that point.
I plan on starting a new character in Sacred Gold until I hear news of a patch. Got lots of game time from SG, mostly my fault for wondering around too much.
DD is such a great game, hope they fix it. Hard to stop playing if it was bug free . . . hard to stop playing with the bugs actually.

Spinning monks? Are we talking about the same "Cursed Abbey"? The only things I saw are those steel skeletons and the engineer in the basement. Solved the quest no problem.
Are we talking about the same place?
However, I HAVE found a reproduceable bug for me. At the warriors guild I can't *select" anything. Not chests, items, or the stairs (and I need to use the stairs to do their quest). I can still talk to NPCs, but I noticed I can't initiate combat (if I talk to them with a drawn weapon and chose the "start fighting" option, it immediately goes to the base friendly dialogue options, as if I never had my weapon drawn).
I searched and saw two other people having this exact same problem, so it doesn't seem to be a popular problem. All these other things I'm not getting.
My system:
Vista 64
Geforce 8800 GT, latest drivers

For spinning monks go to the church directly behind the Cursed Abbey, my bad, been calling the church the Cursed Abbey, sorry. Should crash after monk is hit with fireball.

[I also had the problem in the warriors guild (among all the other problems I posted on here), however thankfully that one problem seemed to correct with reloading the game.

it sounds like one who plays DD should save a lot... in many different slots... so that you can revert to an uncorrupted game.
i'd like to hear what larian thinks about the bugs.

Read the DD forum, their presence and comments are many. Bottom line, they are working on a patch to fix all problems.
Edit: Exceptional since the game is 7 yrs old

what an amazing game.
and yes, exceptional support.
DD is like what I wish morrowind were more like... although it was already very nice in terms of freedom, DD has much more freedom. and i like the isometric view.
another thing - i am SO very glad that there isn't a "party" to worry about. i'm a hero, gosh darn it, and i don't need any stinkin' roadies.
btw so far the game has only crashed 4 times on me in about 27 hours of play. that's not bad considering that i constantly hit the windows key to switch tasks while playing. and i'm running this off of an old Dell laptop. knock on wood and all that, but it has not been the bug-infested tragedy that i feared it might be after reading these reviews.

I agree, haven't fired up Painkiller, Unreal or Sacred Gold since I installed DD, very addictive game play.
Good ol Morrowwind, spent many hours in that and Oblivion.
I find DD to be in a class by itself not quite like any other RPG. It's got me looking at DD2 and I DON't buy games with DRM (I am assuming DD2 will have it, depends on how bad it is)

Hi All, so far this seems to be a decent game but the CTD is ruining it. I even have spinning characters and not being able to pick-up/interact with items in the starting town! GOG should know better than to put up such a buggy version of a game. If Larian was going to patch it they should have done so BEFORE putting it up on GOG.
Stuff, below you mention firewall settings, why on earth is a standalone game even trying to connect to the internet?

The game is not trying to connect to the internet, it is trying to create the files necessary to run the game, such as a save file for your newly created character. It first has to create the character folder, than the file containing all the info for the character.
I use Comodo firewall which monitors activities like this and pops up a dialog asking you to confirm the operation. If you do not confirm that it is ok for the program to create a directory, add to the registry, create a file etc. etc. it simply blocks the program until you do confirm.
Edit: When I closed DD, the requests were withdrawn and the pop-ups closed before the program closed. Alt-Tab with the program running was the only way I could discover the requests were being made by the firewall. Also, if you have your firewall blocking confirmation requests silently, (ZoneAlarm ??) you would NEVER see the confirmation requests at all. Writes would never be made causing unexplainable problems.
The pop-ups were not visible in front of the game screen (usually pop up in front of programs) so I was unaware of the request. Not confirming caused problems since the program could not do normal writes to folders and registry. I found it by Alt-Tabbing out of the program only to find several confirmation dialogs for DD. Once I confirmed that the operation was ok, some of my problems disappeared. I marked the div.exe as a trusted file and have not had any firewall requests for DD since.
Installing the latest video driver cleared up further problems as well. I am about two thirds of the way thru and only have the standard problems, spinning monks at church, can't use statues, occasional crash on enemy that has flash effects when they score a hit on my character. I have had a great time playing the game, less problems than most and I am looking forward to the patch. This game is 7 yrs old and Larian / GOG are to be applauded for their efforts to patch this game.
This, in my opinion and experience with 20 + GOG games, is an exception and not the rule for a GOG game. I believe Larian should not be judged by this release as they are more concerned about the bugs than anyone. I purchased Beyond Divinity yesterday and I am considering buying my first retail game in years when DD2 comes out. I am not troubled by a developer trying to give me a better game even if it causes some temporary problems.
I believe it is a result, just an opinion, of the developer giving us high res in the game with some unanticipated bugs poping up. I am continuing to play with few problems and waiting for the patch. Hope this helps as to why the firewall is a factor, at least with Comodo. Not sure Windows default firewall would even notice the above. . . =^ )