I'm currently playing Baldur's Gate 1 through Tutu, so that I can play the BG2 classes in it. I've got a wildmage who's currently just prior to going through cloakwood (I just can't bring myself to play through that part), but I have to say, the wildmage is lots of fun. Sure, there's harmful stuff that can happen, but so for I haven't had anything happen that actually required a reload to be honest. A fireball once exploded in my area while casting some shield spell, but everyone luckily survived that - apart from the enemy gnolls standing too close.
The pro's of the Wildmage by far outway the contra's. Multiple times I've had a spell deal double damage, cast at a higher level (or lower, sure), create gems, sounds, weird effects, nothing. It keeps things interesting. It also gives you the bonus spell you get as a specialized mage, but without the contra of being barred from the opposite school of your specialization. Mage is a nice class anyway, and especially in BG2 once you get to the higher levels you can try your hand at one of the only (somewhat) deep strategic battles involving high level mages. It's just so much fun creating barriers, peeling away at one another, creating sequencers and whatnot, up to the point where one of you fails. And direct damage is bloody good as well.
If you're planning to do a lot with your main character, I'd say a rogue, either assassin or the trap-route, is also quite a good choice. I've played through BG2 once with an archer, which was fun but became somewhat boring (get the best crossbow, fire Bolts of Biting, and almost everything dies), and once I've played through it with an assassin, backstabbing anything that could be backstabbed. It's fun, but limited, especially during the later areas and levels where things undead and demon kinda make you suck cause direct melee is not what the assassin did well for me.
, apart from that try tactics/improved anvil mod if you find game to boring 
(first one on weidu site with handful of other fine mods)
