My original CDs are dying, but I also went through the game so many times, I'm ready to leave it behind IF there's nothing worthy in EE.

From what I've seen things of EE seem superfluous, lame tweaks of already existing content, and generaly bad design like Shaman (what is a druid kit by thelook of it) doesn't even get a Stronghold. Or the Blackguard is a paladin which can't fall. DragonDisciple is a Sorcerer which can't do casting despite being a caster and for "compensation" gets Avenger's mini-fireball. If it could at least be a shorty-race, or something to make use of the extra CON.
The dwarven barbarian seems ok, but alone does not constitute spending money on this.

So, you have until the discount goes away. Convince me.

You get a digital key to the originals.

...Me for The Win!

No, I'm not gonna.

As someone who's played, loved, and modded the original games for 10+ years I dislike just about everything about the EE. Just saying this as an opinion; not to "spread the hate" or anything.

So just grab the original games off Amazon or eBay. If you wish to hold on to these gems.

If you want to try out the EE though, well hey, knock yourself out.

Unfortunately, Amazon does not deliver here, to my third world dictatorship. GoG does.

And an issue of mine is, the pure original is just exhausted at me. There's literaly nothing it could offer. I played every class, solo and party. I even played a fallen paladin. Recently I played POVERTY Sorcerer, and playing POVERTY C/T.
So just for the original it'd only be because my CDs started lacking.

In everything you have written in this thread, you sound very much like someone who would not like EE. I recommend that you do not purchase it.

There is not much EE can offer.

You get couple of new companions you can try with their own quests. That's the only positive thing about EE I can think of.

On the negative, the characters do not fit the classic game and I found them rather dull. Moreover, EE changed interface for much worse, the last time I checked they had shitty new cutscenesm abd graphics looked worse than in original. Maybe some of that has improved, but even if it did, that would still not convince me to play it EE versions of BG1&2.

On the other hand, EE versions of IWD, Planescape, NWN are fine, and I switched to playing them rather than classic versions.

IWD for me focuses too much on the technical battle. For Planescape it'sthe stories that counts either way, so the engine doesn't really matter.
Never played NWN.

I've played BG1EE (chose dragon disciple) about a decade after having played the original and the trilogy version with BG2 engine. Surprisingly I liked it more than I liked the original when I first played it.

Mhm. Any idea why?

Instead of forcing yourself to play the same game over and over, maybe take a break from it for a couple of years? Play some other titles that you haven't tried yet and forget about EEs? For me there's nothing that EE adds that mods don't do better. From my experience, going back to games like BG after a couple of years of playing something else was really great and refreshing.

As for CDs failing, I have several copies of the game both on CDs and DVDs, but for actual playing I have my ISO backups and GOG version of the original that I bought before it was bundled with EE.

If I get EE, I get the originals too.

But don't start me on ISO-copies. I have horror stories of those, so I prefer something like GoG. Thispurchase wuld be my backup copyof the original - but I played the game so many times I don'treally care for a simple backup anymore. And unfortunately I never got into mods, which are more or less always break the experince with their New Hardest Mode Which Only The Designers Understand How To Survive.
I don't like mods. At all. For the same reason I don't like patches either. Patches are almost always mods. The two most infamous "patches" I know of are Diablo 2 1.07, and the patch of Fallout Tactics. The end results were entirely new games.

In my personal opinion, EEs are for people who has never played the games before. They provide some QOL improvements like
* quick loot,
* zoom-in-out
* ability to see some stats directly in the inventory screen
* my personal favorite, ability to swap to 2H weapons (like a giant sword or a bow) even when you have a shield or a 2nd weapon in your off hand.

However, if you had finished BG series inside out, EEs have not much more to offer in my opinion.

Maybe it is time to move on? I saw that you have never played NWN and you may actually like them. NWN is Bioware's experiment to clone the success of Diablo 2 in a D&D world (single player with henchman, random loots, different item size in inventory etc) while NWN2 goes back to core D&D experience with a party. Note that NWN2 decreases the party limit to 4 instead of the 6 in the infinity engine games but there are mods that can increase that limit back to 6.

Only downside might be is that Official Campaigns might not be as interesting for some people (I am not one of them, I love OC in both NWN and NWN2) but the biggest difference is between the systems.

D&D2 vs D&D3 (or D&D3.5)

Pretty much everything is different. And I mean EVERYTHING!!!! How abilities (stats) work, skills, saves, the new FEAT system, proficiencies(weapon abilities), leveling, multiclassing, epic levels,... everything... If D&D 2 is learning French, D&D3 is learning German. So it may actually worth exploring this new world if you had enough of the infinity engine games.

Take a look yourself

https://nwn.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Classes

https://nwn.fandom.com/wiki/Experience_point

https://nwn.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Feats

NWN2 Classes: https://nwn2.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Classes

And I am pretty sure you can figure out the rest yourself.. eventually.

Note to self: use & # 58 ; instead of ":" because GOG doesn't like it in links.
https://www.freeformatter.com/html-entities.html

Unfortunately, whatever NWN is, is not an option for me being 64bit only..

if you want to play bgee... and have it work... get it from Beamdog as their build actually works
Sharman is a druid that picks spells, like a sorcerer is a mage that picks spells

What do you mean? The Neverwinter series are very old 32bit games and can be played on both 32bit and 64bit systems.

Neverwinter Nights 2 Complete Edition on GOG

Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition on GOG

When you get NWN:EE on GOG, you also get NWN: Diamond edition on GOG.

EDIT: I searched a little and NWN:EE seems to be 64bit only and for Windows 7 and later. Here you have 2 options.

1. On GOG, Diamond edition automatically comes with NWN: EE as stated on its store page. Being a 2003 game, it definitely works on 32bit and whatever windows system you are using.
2. This is "a little" crazy idea. IF you have a 64bit CPU but have a 32 bit and an earlier version of Windows and have no desire to upgrade, you may consider using a Linux version. With 40-50 GBs to spare, you can dual-boot a Linux Mint version (very easy) and install any game that has a 64bit version or runs on WINE.

I know I am severely out of topic here and sorry for that but I just want to show that you have options.