Impossible Difficulty In Starting Area

There are a few fixes that can make some enemies stronger. I think Dain's fix for Dual Wield Expert dot also improves damage from enemy rogues who have that. Also there are fixes for enemy specific abilities, like the wolf howl which did not originally apply the defense debuff.

Otherwise, I don't think there is any intentional difficulty modifier. I remember that my very first run in DAO felt very difficult, but I had never played any games in the genre before, and I did not yet know which attributes and talents were worth investment.

I guess this is the dwarf commoner origin. I have a hard time remembering back to when I first played that one and my impression for that origin specifically, but I will say that all origins are not the same in difficulty and neither are all the classes.

This game can be punishing for builds that aren't optimal, especially in the beginning. Also I find that during early game when the companions are very weak it can make the game feel harder if they are guzzling pots and there aren't any left for the main character.

So did you go warrior or rogue? What's the build?