drxenija: Thank you Dark_Art_ for classic divinity! My friends have always talked about Divinity 2 non-stop and highly (and incessantly) recommended it! But the second game is rather expensive. I am very delighted to have the chance to try D2's ancestors first! Cheers mate for your remarkable gift!
Cavalary: Just expect them to be quite different. And just look at Divine Divinity really, which really is (isometric) ARPG done right. Beyond Divinity is something even the developers are trying to forget (though I saw a few posts around here over the years saying it's not that bad).
But about Divine Divinity, a little hint is that nearly every magic skill can be learned from books that can be found in shops. They're really expensive, will take a while before you'll be able to afford any, but later in the game whenever I got back to a shopkeeper that could stock any I kept trying to see whether any new ones would show up and buy whatever I saw (shop inventory is determined when you talk to the shopkeeper, so kept reloading till I got bored), so mainly just used skill points for non-magic skills despite playing a mage character. Also, there are a handful of skill books you can find in game or skills that are raised by quests, Restoration being notable because I think you can get 4 levels like that. Also, unless I'm confusing it, it's another game where experience for kills drops with your level while that for quests increases, so clear everying you can somehow manage to kill first, then do quests if you can.