For a start the PIC is best.
Hi,
The dSPICs are much more complicated than the 16F or 18F series. It allows you to do serious math, have a software based stack, improved peripherals like much speedier buffered 12Bit ADC , auto multiplexing for reading a chain of inputs with a single read, motor control stuff, low latency flash read, linear memory space and so on. It is not supported by PBP nor mikrobasic(???). MikroPascal does support it but for serious programming I would suggest a Hi-Tech or Microchip C compiler.
I started off with PBP and work with it for 90% of my projects. Asm adds muscle to PBP and it really makes your life easier. I did work with the demo version of mikrobasic and it features sort of structured programming, High priority interrupt, online memory gauge and so. What impressed me is the interrupt handling and graphic LCD support.
So I will vote for PBP for a start-up. Build your own programmer if you can. Start off with a breadboard and use compile-spot or a demo version to taste it out.
Good Luck
Sougata