Wizardry, Morrowind, Gothic 2
Looking to get into WRPGs
Fallout: New Vegas. It has all the freedom character-wise and combat wise but will need mods to be playable.
if CRPGs count, Underrail is a great starting point as well
If you're going to play Morrowind don't even try to make a thief character, stealth in that game is unplayable garbage and since npcs don't go to sleep you can't steal from shops unless you cheese it.
KOTOR
Unironically, watch a few of Sseth's videos and pick one that sounds interesting. Your opinion on his content aside, he highlights a lot of really good RPGs and gives a good gameplay rundown so you don't have to go in completely blind.
>but will need mods to be playable.
This is a meme. I played vanilla for years and was very happy with that.
Unofficial patches go a long way in increasing the playability of the game, but yeah I would definitely never recommend content altering mods to a new player.
Realistically it only needs NVSE and maybe a few patches or so. Not really what someone would consider a legit mod.
I hear you as I did, too. I'm just trying to warn crashes.