I'll throw in a recommendation for the Icewind Dale games. I enjoyed them a great deal when they were new, and still have my discs around somewhere. As I understand it, they're like Baldur's Gate, except you create the entire party at once.
I usually separate the three Infinity engine games into three categories.
Planescape has extremely good atmosphere, role playing and storytelling but it's combat is extremely dull and clunky. The setting is fantastic however.
Icewind Dale is all about the combat. It's rather story and dialogue lite with little chance to role play. It does however still have fantastic atmosphere with art and a soundtrack that I personally find much better than the other games. It's however rather linear.
Baldur's Gate finds a balance between the two and has great combat, storyline, atmosphere and role playing. It can be a bit clunky at times, especially the original Baldur's Gate.
Personally I would start with either Baldur's Gate or Planescape and then move on to Icewind Dale if you loved the tactical battles. Some of the fights are just brutal in IWD, even more so with mods.
Edit: the "categories" are Combat, Story and balanced.