Take a look a this thread:
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/comment/363593

Scroll to the end
The next beta patch of EE unhardcoded races, and tweakpack already has an EE exclusive mod added to it in v14 that would allow you to remove all race class restrictions.
Want to play a multiclass human? You can.
Want to play a paladin half-orc? Enjoy yourself.
Necromancer Gnome? Be my guest.
All it requires is BGEE and installing the tweakpack

This kind of communication and cooperation is possible with EE where the source code is available and actively developed.

Modders aren't flocking to EE because they are being corrupted by the lure of lucre. They are being enticed by these kind of changes to the engine that make modding things that were previously impossible to mod, now possible to mod.

You can do most of that with TuTu or BGT & TobEx.

Yeah, this.

These aren't the best of examples to trumpet 'only on EE!' as they really aren't. The reason why they're labeled EE-exclusive is that players of the original BG2 should be looking at TobEx instead of Tweaks for this.

So just give up on the horribly hacked AD&D ruleset that BioWare gave us for a further hacked AD&D ruleset? No thanks. Icewind Gate II has the right idea...

Kindly keep 3rd Edition out of my BG I & II games. I did enjoy Icewind Dale II though.

What's not to like? Better races, Better classes, better combat. Granted it doesn't fix the idiotic all three dialogue responses produce the "RAWR! I KEEL YOU!" response from npcs... but there is only so much math can do.

I'd also add better variety of spells (in IWD2 I mean).

All good points, but I have to agree with Gydion. Even though I enjoy the 3.X rule set very much, there's something about the AD&D rules that I like better. Likely because it's the rule set that I played most often in my table top days.

Agreed. A major reason why NWN will never measure up to the BG series for me is the 3E ruleset. Universal Skills/Feats really ruined the unique feel of each class. Basic > 1E & 0D&D > 2E > 3E > 4E But don't let me derail this thread into edition wars. :)

On the topic of BG vs BGEE, I am on the fence right now. I spent about 4 hours a couple Saturdays ago getting the original game installed on 3 computers in my house with BGT-WeiDU, BGNPC, Tweaks, Fixpack, and Unfinished Business 1&2. That definitely was NOT fun. It is really tempting to simply buy EE and install once and be done with it.

On the other hand, the things the modding community has done to the original game series is nothing short of amazing. All the time spent installing mods and tweaks ends up being worth it in the long run because you know you are running a superior game to EE. Right now, EE just isn't quite there yet. I suppose in a few years, when all the bugs have been fixed and more mods support it, it may be better...but not right now.

By the way, I would really love someone to put together a 1 step mod compilation for Baldur's Gate using the WeiDU system - something similar to what they did to Morrowind with the Overhaul mod. Combine all of the best mods together in one giant install pack and let us use a GUI to check boxes on what we want and then install. No fuss, no wasted time researching mod order and no headache scouring the web for files. That would be awesome.

For the P&P game, sure... for the cRPGs, no. Here's Josh Sawyer's opinion on the matter.

I enjoyed my time in the IWD series more than in Baldur's Gate. I see the EE as a waste of money for anyone not intending to play on a tablet, the one step mod idea is a good one but I'm ok with the current cli interfaces which are incredibly straight forward.

Seriously? The example given wasn't even changing the game, just unhardcoding stuff so that modders may change it.

wait, you mean he was talking about 2e? Hah, I thought for sure he was talking about 3e being better.

Just dropped in due to the Steam sale to check out if EE became worthy but after reading all of this I'll just pass and probably wait for the double bundle. However the third-party support those games get is truly admirable, thank you devs for all the hard work and your posts here have been awesome.

Well, I'm not that hardcore to remember what I'm talking about but I remember, years ago, I dled something what could be considered an ultimate installer. No idea about the name of this thing but it had every non-conflicting mod imaginable included (maybe except very minor ones) and even if some modes were conflicting with each other it would warn you beforehand.

So the program would basically download every mod you could think of from a priori set ftps (I don't think you could change those links which probably renders this installer useless as most links are probably dead today). After that it would unpack every mod and run them one by one (just as if you were doing it manually). It run them in a proper order to make sure that none of them would override anything or conflict with each other. Sadly my PC couldn't really handle this thing, as it was huge. I remember the whole game (BG I + II) taking like 20GB of disk space, probably even more. So I couldn't really enjoy all of the content but remember the map which was just epic - probably four times the size of BG2 map, twice the size of BG2+BG1. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

The BiG World Mod is along those lines.

I am positive at best, neutral at worst with EE efforts - and have just gotten started with BGII EE so cannot yet comment if the new characters and locations actually add to the depth and lore, I hope so!

I like the series both ways, for sure.

And no big bugginess in my case with either. Only that the "highlight all interactive objects with tab" function is not currently working for me, and it is not included into key mapping. Small thing, but once you get spoilt, spoilt you are! :-p

What I really like meanwhile is that BG has been brought to Mac OS, which I think is genuinely making this game more accessible - though ideally one should not have to pay for both version separate.

Meanwhile, maybe I am a dreamer, but my ultimate wish is that this uniquely fantastic series could possibly one day see a third installment, and this has been my strongest motivation for paying anew for EE. Without hopes of commercial success, this will never be.

The writing off original IP needs to for sure improve for that, so awaiting to tackle the new content in BGII EE to see if there is any promise of learning the art!

Personally, I would buy the original BG instead of BGEE. Was a long time supporter of BGEE prior to its release, pre-ordered it and then found out it was riddled with bugs. The extra content while interesting, doesn't really add much to a game with bugs, when the original game doesn't have those bugs. Beamdog introduced new bugs that weren't there which defies logic. I found it very hard to finish this game and went back to the original BG. Very disappointed with this effort.

An example of an introduced bug which has been brought to Beamdogs attention on their forums last year and still not fixed:

BGEE cannot be 'alt-tabbed' and minimised to the task bar with dual montiors. The original game can. As a person who uses dual montors, this really sucks when the game is 'stuck' on one monitor and can't be minimised. Also on a dual monitor system, any applications you open on the same monitor as BGEE will be 'behind' the game and you can't access those apps. The only way to get rid of the game is exiting it because minimise doesn't work (on dual monitor set-ups).