I am playing on nightmare and my party is currently level 6-7 (but the issue isn't really that much better on normal) and it seems like every enemy I run into, down to the lowliest prowling mercenaries have way stronger stats than my party. While I don't have trouble winning battles because I can out-think the AI and just abuse crowd control and abilities, I never get the sense that my characters are there heros who are, at least, stronger than average, as was the case in DA:O and DA2.
How am I supposed to feel when my warrior has 700 HP and does 100 damage and constantly runs into bandit archers with 1,700 HP (on normal they have may 1200 or something) and melee guys with 3,000 to 6,000 HP and doing 300+ damage per swing. Only reason I win battles is because the enemy AI is dumb as a rock, enemy groups are 2 to 3 enemies, I abuse abilities, and keep chugging potions non-stop. There is no feeling that, hey let's 1v1 dude and my champion is going to own you, as was the case in previous games. Every wimp has better stats than anyone in my party. I can understand if demons are strong or some champion enemies. But for every lowly bandit to just completely outclass my characters seems weird.
I think I would rather keep the constant difficulty through larger mobs of weather enemies rather than having groups of 2-3 give my guys a mad inferiority complex.
There are other issues that stem from small groups of very strong enemies:
1. It's hard to have an epic fight taking out, say a mage or templar stronghold, since you can't have a large group of enemies--they would simply demolish any party. So as a result, when you fight random roaming groups, you fight 2-3 enemies at a time and then when you attack the mage or templar stronghold, you get to this camp or the cave...and the stronghold has whooping 5 guys in it. Weird to me from the story telling perspective.
2. Abilities seem laughably weak. In both of the previous games, multiple abilities could really hurt your enemies. A fireball in DA:O could severely hurt a group of enemies. In DA2, you could freeze and then shatter opponents and do 1-2 hit kills. Now, I freeze a knight, then do the mighty blow, there are all these flashy graphics and the guy takes 5% of his health in damage. Then he swings and takes half my life. Then a mage fireballs them and does 150 damage to 5000 HP knight. Maybe Inquisition should recruit some of them instead of the wimps my party is made up of? Really shatters the immersion. Only real way to win fights seems to be abusing potions and abilities almost to the point of exploitation of the system. Oh and outnumber the enemy. I really don't feel like that should be the case. Fine, make demons super powerful and annoying. But why do other humans turn into supermen as soon as they join the other side? You want to make the fight tough, fine, make it 5-7 500 HP knights or something. It's really annoying when the enemy squishy mage or archer can tank better than my warrior that's being shielded, uses guard and keeps chugging potions.
3. Based on some other threads it makes melee assassin class not viable. The whole point of that class is that you deal so much damage that you take down enemies faster than they can do anything. In DA:I you run up, start doing your backstabs or w/e, except you are taking off tiny slivers of enemy health. Then the enemy warrior swings his 2-handed swords and you die in 2 hits even though you are behind him (the whole 360 degree damage thing, wat?).
4. No way to deal with enemy ranged practically, while means being forced to play in an exploitative manner. You can't divert one of your guys to attack them and take them out fast because he needs 20+ hits to kill them, all the while dying in 3-4 hits himself. Just really bizarre.
This game has some really weird design decision piled on top of one another. Mobs that respawn out of thin air at extremely short intervals, superhuman enemies, wimpy heroes, level limited equipment (so you fight a tough fight and get this awesome new weapon and then can't use it for another 5 levels), being forced to trek back to camp to restock on healing potions really often and then waste time getting back. Duno, some of this seems really basic stuff that game designers should not miss....
3.
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