I didn't find the story in nwn1 to be as bad as the reviews said, but my biggest complaint over the BG games were only getting to control one character. So even though I read the stories get better in nwn1 xpacs I didn't like the single character game play enough to continue. Interested if anyone has any opinions on my next game. Thinking either icewindale or nwn2. Is nwn2 significantly better in story and game play or should I go to the older game?

If you aren't happy unless you're able to directly control (as in "possess") multiple characters, then NWN isn't for you, no. That said, the NWN expansions and community campaigns feature far more *indirect* control over companions -- can adjust their tactics far more, adjust their actual inventory/gear, and sometimes even control how they level (in general terms like Cleric or Rogue, not specific stat choices).

On a personal level I generally actually prefer not constantly moving away from *my* character (I've beaten DA:O and DA2 on Nightmare where it was often just massive micromanaging) but I understand others feel differently.

Regarding NWN2, well...

When Starcraft 2 came out the vast, vast majority of people moved to it and abandoned Starcraft.

When Left 4 Dead 2 came out the vast, vast majority of people moved to it and abandoned Left 4 Dead.

When Command and Conquer Red Alert 2 came out the vast, vast majority of people moved to it and abandoned Red Alert.

And so on.

When NWN2 came out the vast, vast majority of people moved to it...and then most of that group went right back to NWN. I've heard that they might have fixed some/most of the gameplay and technical issues but a lot of the damage was already done. The toolset being significantly harder to work with didn't help either.

To put things in perspective, there are 23 threads in the NWN general forum that have been active in the last month. There are...11...threads in the NWN2 general forum that have been active in the last month. Despite it being the newer game with better graphics and so on.

Whether NWN2 is better in story than NWN is hard to say since that's very subjective. That said, SoU is generally thought to be quite good and HotU is considered amazing (both are much, much better than the original NWN campaign). I haven't heard anything as glowing about anything in NWN2 as I've heard about HotU, but I wouldn't be surprised if the story in NWN2 (both original and expansions) was roughly on par with SoU.

Gameplay wise everything I've seen makes me think NWN has better gameplay in general...but NWN2 does allow you to possess each member in the party which seems to be very important for you.

Icewind Dale I can't speak for at all.

Well I like the setting and a good story. I guess I could continue with the nwn1 xpacs and finish developing my character. I was thinking NWN2 would be closer to DA:O which I thought a good mix of both story and gameplay. I don't like to micro manger too much, but controlling multiple chars feels more strategic and less hack and slash. nwn1 is too hack and slashy. At least the OC was.

Multiplayer is where the fun is - when the other PCs in your party are all REAL I instead of AI, it is great fun, and no micro management required.

http://playnwn.com

Come join the fun!

Well, SoU is meant for an entirely new character at level 1. Then SoU continues into HotU. Yes, the OC was insanely hack and slashy, no question about it. Far more than either expansion.

The Hordes of Underdark expansion of NWN1 (which continues the story and character from Shadows of Undrentide, so you might want to play it first) is pretty good, definitely much better than the original campaign. But it's still "single character", like nwn1 main not like Baldur's Gate.

The same goes for NWN2 in my opinion, the Mask of the Betrayer expansion is much more interesting than the main campaign (although the stronghold part of NWN2 main campaign is quite well done if you like that kind of gameplay). NWN2 does give you more control over NPCs, but it's still somewhat like NWN1 in that you can only have up to 3 of them (most of the time), unlike the party of 6 of Baldur's Gate.

If you're looking for a game like Baldur's Gate, I would advise you to play Planescape: Torment, which is in my opinion the best of all "Infinity Engine" games. The Icewind Dale games are much more hack&slash dungeon crawl than Baldur's Gate or NWN, so it depends of what you like - they are well done for dungeon crawlers, but they don't have the "roleplaying depth" of BG/PsT/NWN.

And if you want more modern party-based RPGs, you can have a look at Pillars of Eternity, Wasteland 2, the Shadowrun games or Lords of Xulima. There has been a lot of good party-based RPGs released in the last few years, so your choice :)

Well now Im curious about these nwn1 xpacks but I really dont want to start a new character. At least when you start a new party there is some variety to keep things interesting. But nwn1 doesn't have that same feel for me. Will there be any spoilers if I started NWN2 now then go back to the nwn1 xpacks later?

There will be minor ones, like a possible companion of NWN1 expansions returning as a merchant in NWN2, but nothing too bad (if you don't ask too many questions to this merchant, at least).

The Storm of Zehir expansion for NWN2 allows you to create a party of up to 4 characters which you can control yourself by switching between them like in BG or IWD. There's even a way to increase the party size from 4 to 6 characters, but it's been a while since I played it and don't remember. I think all you needed to do was to change a certain value in the expansion's module files.

Storm of Zehir lets you have a party of six, just like in the IE RPGs; see here:
http://lilura1.blogspot.com/2014/10/pro-tips-for-storm-of-zehir.html

Shadows of Undrentide & Hordes of the Underdark are both great; I wouldn't skip them.