You don't need convincing if you're reading this. You're going to attempt to take the plunge. I have played almost 100 hours pre-DF Unity, and can say with assurance that getting DF Unity set up is the way to play, so do that.

You don't *need* any mods on top of that, but I'm playing with dae's Dominion modpack on nexus and I like what it adds. It makes the world feel a bit more breathed in and can sort of turn the game into a fantasy traveling simulator which I really like (after tweaking random encounters mod -- default was way too frequent for me as I travel by foot constantly).

I'd take the main quest in bite-sized pieces, and give it a few breaks. If you're not used to old games, you'll get worn out quick. Be patient and enjoy it for what it is, and you will have a great time. Get that final cutscene!

I basically said the same for the 1st Elder Scrolls BUT its very interesting to look back at and it actually hold us decently well!

For what it is compared to modern day expectations, it's still a cool RPG to dive into and check out.

Have to set up the controls to a modern standard though, change the garbage default control scheme to a more sane wasd and choose the option for your view to follow your mouse instead of view being cursor controlled. Then I personally set middle mouse to enable the cursor and switched weapon swing to M1 and 'interact with center' to M2, then in the settings enable 'fullscreen' which hides the UI buttons.

Game was made before wasd and fully 3D first person was commonplace. Like, PC's were still a novelty, even - so once you get past that and change them it's a decent, now genuinely retro RPG. The inventory management and spells management are pretty clunky though.