Is the OP a toddler or something? Baldur's Gate is a game, not a Phd in quantum physics.

You should try on GOG:

1. Fallout 1+2
2. KOTOR 1+2
3. Diablo + Hellfire
4. NWN EE
5. Dragon Age: Origins
6. The Witcher 1+2+3
7. Planescape Torment EE => not for beginners

You should try elsewhere:

1. Mass Effect 1+2+3

You could also start with a decent free RPG. Heroine's Quest. It's reminiscent of the old King's Quest games, it is quite adventure-like RPG and it is free. For example it is 'pay what you want' on itch.io (https://radiant.itch.io/heroines-quest). So you can get it for free there, but if you want to appreciate the developer, you can do that too.

I hadn't played that many rpgs either when I first played Baldur's Gate 2 back in 2000 (iirc Albion was the only rpg I had played before), and I didn't have that many problems. Most "real" rpgs will be overwhelming at first, unless one is willing to invest some effort into learning the systems, there's no point to playing them.
THAC0 isn't that hard to understand, it's just the lower, the better...there's no need to grasp the mechanics in every detail.
Any complex party-based rpg will take some effort to get into, if one doesn't want that, one should play something else.

Finally, a voice that was able to put to words my issues with "Yeah, really. The complex RPG is the way to start."

Sure, I get that some people prefer the "deep end of the pool" system of learning, but Balder's gate is more akin to throwing a child somewhere deep underwater with nothing but SCUBA and expecting them to survive long enough to swim to a minisub.
So why not pick something simpler like Ultima 4, where number equals number, instead of number equals factor?

You can screw up your build in that game (irreversible at level up choices and no respec to my knowledge), so I wouldn't recommend this one.

(Many other RPGs suffer from this issue as well.)

There's also the issue that you have to make irreversible choices about your character at the start of the game, when you have no idea how the game works or how the game is balanced.

Final Fantasy 2, which I mentioned earlier, may not be a good game for a beginner, but it at least makes it possible (albeit possibly tedious) to fix your mistakes; Baldur's Gate doesn't, and many other games suffer this problem.

Ah, my first and favorite RPG was Hero's Quest. The game is quite easy to get to figure out and it doesn't have as many insta-kill spots like the other Sierra games (if you don't have a specific item at a certain time, you die). Most of the series you really don't even need to grind to get your character's stats all the way up, though it is beneficial for some skills depending on class.

As the OP goes thru this list, biggest thing I'd recommend is taking a look at the first 10-20 minutes of some LP's for the games you are interested in. Blind LPs if possible, so you don't get any spoilers to the the game's storyline.

So what, one just takes a simple class like fighter and pushes up str, con, dex...not that hard.
Baldur's Gate isn't really that complex, it's rather dumbed down in terms of class abilities, and you don't really have to do any complex character building if you don't want to.

Your suggestion of Dragon Quest 1 was actually quite clever. With no party management, it becomes a purely strategic focus. (Once it opens up to strategy upon learning Heal.) The plot is simple, the world is fairly small, the mechanics are straightforward, and just about the only thing you'd have to watch out for is the lack of lit dungeons.

It would provide enough of a range to get comfortable in before taking the gloves off later in the game.

I'm just glad nobody had suggested Pokemon. Which while it may be for beginners, it's a completely asinine slog; with many of the later games going out of their way to patronize the player in insipid ways that makes me wonder if they really think children are that simian.

* How do you know those are the stats to raise? Also, how do you know that it's better to raise one stat to 18 then to raise all of them to 14 or so? (In AD&D, often a stat of 14 is no better than a score of 8 in that stat, making those 6 points wasted.)
* How do you know what weapon proficiency to choose? (Remember that you don't know what weapons are found in the game, and there isn't a fundamental strategic difference between them, yet the game requires you to make that choice early rather than letting you use whatever weapon you find (as a fighter).

Edit: Agin, why the low rating?

Nonsense. For BG there is probably more walkthroughs, guides, character builds and other documents than for any other game. Not to mention it uses one of the most recognisable game systems (d&d).
BG: fighters rule.
BG2: more mages start to rule.
You can solo both with at least sorcerer and theif (fighter/theif).
Really not seeing why people think it’s complicated, oblivion is far more complicated with its skill increase based level advancement which can nerf a character very quickly.
Maybe this if it’s too complicated:
https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/655185

Hey, I'm not really disagreeing with you, as I wrote Baldur's Gate 2 was one of my first rpgs, and I don't think it's too difficult. It can be a bit overwhelming in the first hours though, when you don't know yet what the spells are doing and get bombarded with new quests on every corner.
iirc it even tells you in the game which stats are especially important for certain classes, and in any case, the game isn't so difficult that one has to do min-maxing.
Weapon proficiency can be a bit more tricky, but most weapons provide some good options.

The BG series still has the issues that have been mentioned, like the need for a fighter to choose a specific weapon type to specialize in.

You mention Oblivion, but the problem here isn't the skill increase system (you can fix any mistakes with that just by practicing the deficient skill that it turns out is important), but rather the way stat growth at level up is handled; take away that mechanic, and maybe take away level scaling (or at least tone it down a bit), and you would have a game where you can't permanently screw up your character (except maybe by choosing the wrong race or birthsign; the Atronach birthsign is not recommended for beginners).

Also, are you sure that Baldur's Gate would have more (English) walkthroughs then, say, something like Final Fantasy 7?

Taking a look at what GameFAQs has, we see:
For Baldur's Gate 1 classic, 19 FAQs (this includes those for the original expansion (Tales of the Sword Coast), but not those only attached to the EE).
For Final Fantasy 7, there are 90 FAQs (many of which are quite specialized, it's worth noting).

(With that said, I consider FF7 to be a rather poor game, but it did, for whatever reason, become quite popular. Its issues are different, however, and for those who can tolerate cutscenes, mandatory non-RPG-ish minigames, and long animations (particularly for summons), it's the more accessible game of the two. Just be aware that its follow-up, Final Fantasy 8, isn't so accessible.)

If you know what you're doing, and in those cases, know what spells to pick or thief skills to increase; in particular, someone new to the games shouldn't try this.

Final Fantasy 5 can be beaten at single digit levels, but it's still not someone unfamiliar with the game should attempt.

(Incidentally, Final Fantasy 2 is easy to solo, and Final Fantasy 8 is easy at low levels, to the point of being much easier than a typical playthrough, but I consider these cases to be the result of design flaws rather than intentional features.)

Edit: By easy in that last paragraph, I mean so easy that even someone new to the genre would find the games to be so easy they're not fun anymore.

And what if you chose one that doesn't provide any good options?

(In any case, I don't like the weapon proficiency in general, because it serves to limit the weapon selection of characters, limiting player choice, while not serving as a balancing factor.)

Edit: Again, why the low rating?

Nope, not an issue.

Then you just have to roleplay as an incompetent character who was foolish enough to train with uncommon weapons.
Really too much complaining here, no wonder gaming has become so dumbed down.