Have you played gothic 1 & 2? Those are 2 amazing game (1 has a better setting, but 2 is both longer & harder. I'm working my way trough it at the moment, and it's probably the best CRPG that I have played since The witcher or Vampire: bloodlines). The witcher is... different. Not different in a bad way, but it's, well, not traditional in it's playstyle. As for the story & setting, it's great.Then there are the 1st person RPGs. They are completely different experience. If I will not think about very old, though classic pieces like Ultima Underworld, there is the Gothic 3 - very good one - and Witcher. Personally, I will recomand the Witcher as very very good starting RPG. Simple but complex system, truly great story which you can influence upon, many good sidequests... It is "modern" RPG, though good one. Also Fallout 3 may be good, though I do not think good for beginning player. Also there are KotOR (Knights of the Old Republick) - they are good ones, if you like Star wars universum.
NWN is a series of games that I never got into. The story did not seem to be that interesting, and well, i just did not like it. If you want to play a good D&D style CRPG, then the above mentioned Planescape: torment is really the way to go. It's less combat and more story & dialog based than NWN or Baldur's gate, and the planescape setting is very interesting.
DA was a lot shorter than I expected it to be, and I almost felt cheated when I finished the game after just over 30h (reviewers claimed that the main story alone should take 80-100h!), and I did most (but not all) sidequests. It was a good game, but it had several rough edges, and it would most likely have been good for it if the had spent another ½year on it. The setting was what impressed me the most. It's one of the best high fantasy settings that I have seen, and it feels far more believable than say Forgotten realms (as a roleplayer I like settings to feel like they could work. They don't have to be realistic, but they have to be believable, and forgotten realms is a mess in that regard), the story was good, but most of the main game did not tie into it very well, and the AI was downright stupid (I have the problem that once I have found a loophole in the AI, i can't help myself from abusing it... but this is only true for loopholes that I myself have found), so most fights were far too easy.
There are some really good CRPGs out there tough, the top ones would be:
The witcher (amazing story, amazing setting, a bit grindy)
Vampire the masquerade: bloodlines (this one stays very faithful to it's source material, it's a very good game, but also a very very buggy game. There is a fanpatch out there that helps, a lot, but it does not fix everything)
Morrowind (Good story, amazing setting, very open ended. Oblivion is also good, but it's too easy, and the setting is not very interesting, Daggerfall on the other hand has these impossible dungeons & it's incredibly buggy. I have not really given Arena a chance)
Fallout 1-3 (Good story, amazing setting, very open ended and a good game. 3 is not as good as 1 & 2, but it's still a very solid game)
Planescape: torment (It uses the best D&D setting, it has some really interesting characters and a really good story. The dialog is also very well written)
Mass effect (The voice acting in this one is top of the line, and the story is also very interesting, as is the setting. The 2nd half of the game drags tough)
Gothic (1 has a very interesting setting, and has a system that rewards a skilled player, plus the story is interesting and the voice acting is usually good, 2 has a good setting, a system that really rewards a skilled player (and punishes a poor player!), and it's challenging and the story is good, 3 is more open ended and the fighting system is worse, but it's still a good game. Fanpatch gothic 3!)
Arcanum (Steampunk done right! It's an open ended game, with a decent story, a great setting and a good system. Buggy, but well worth your time)