General Balancing: Killing too easy, Surviving too tough

[Chumpy]

Leather armor feels fine, at least up to level 50. I'm playing in towns 8-10 levels above me, and I (depending on how much I level in the course of the dungeon) can usually take a few hits from a normal monster before needing to heal.

I'm an Archer/Fire Mage, though - if I was a melee character in leather armor I'd be in real trouble. Bosses usually one-shot me, but that's basically appropriate.

[alstein]

I think that's the crux of the problem- there is too much diminishing return right now on many things in regards to level.

If anything the reverse should be happening.

[Chumpy]

Well, I mean, if I end up in melee, I get murdered. If I have to deal with two enemies at once, I get murdered. When I first come to a new town, I spend a while just killing things near the stairs/gate, because if I stay in the dungeon for more than a few seconds, I get murdered.

I have pretty great leather armor, so I can take two normal hits from a normal overlevelled monster.

It sounds to me like the problem is mail and plate aren't that much better.

[Maledictus]

I haven't seen this mentioned yet, but shouldn't there be a baseline when testing this stuff? Like, dungeon levels must be the same as the character, or always at +5 or something. Otherwise results and impressions get warped; one player basing findings on dungeon levels of char+10 and another on char+3.
Anyway, I'd expect things to be difficult if I select a dungeon that's level char+10. Wouldn't rebalancing that simply shift the problem to dungeon levels of char+15 ? And how will this affect end-game, where you can't increase dungeon levels past 100 anymore? I've always thought that the game should be balanced for fun factor and difficulty at dungeon level char+0; if you can't survive on char+10 you either aren't ready for that or the char setup is wrong.

Sorry if I simplify things too much here, but given the bewildering amount of variables in play here I sorta have to.

Sofar I've played mostly melee chars and yes, it can be tough, but part of the fun is trying to figure out ways to get the bastard that can kill you so easily. Use the scenery, use potions, farm items, switch stuff around through the shared stash, whatever. In the end I always get them.