[Neomi]

I think I see the problem here. It's a fundamental flaw in the plot of the entire BG series. You are SUPPOSED to achieve godhood (or maybe demigod status, whatever that means). It's written into your blood. The game is designed to give enough XP so that your characters reach a level that in all honesty was never meant to be obtained in P&P. Seriously, when was the last time you had a P&P campaign with level 30+ sorcerers, clerics, fighters, etc. wandering around?!?!

Dundee is right that the computer's AI isn't complicated enough or creative enough to put limitations on the player's actions in the same way that a flesh and blood DM would be able to. So therefore the higher level powers have to be tempered by the game design.

I think that's why it always seems so much more fun and exciting to me when I'm starting a new character fresh out of candlekeep or a new party in SOA... every new spell level, proficiency slot, thieving skill, etc made a huge difference to the character. Once you get to the TOB party (not to mention soloist) the power level gets redundant and game balance almost impossible.

My only gripe was that the mage/cleric classes get the shaft as far as HLA's (alchemy and scribe scrolls) after they've taken all the truly powerful options. So what if they're overpowered at that point, so is everybody else. What difference would it make to keep adding additional spells per level or a couple of minor skills like detect illusion? None, compared to the game-breaking Time Stop.

As far as the Bard goes, as far as I can remember in my original AD&D player's handbook, the Bard class was actually a separate category, something akin to a dual-class (except you completed some fighter levels, then some thief levels, then added mage skills when you became a true "bard"). I don't know how it was implemented in later PnP editions but I assume that this type of class progression would be precluded by the game design and therefore bards were "nerfed" into the rogue class.