Sorry, I'm the type of gamer who just has to explore everything... it's some sort of moral obligation, and most of the fun in games like this. I'm an addict to the Metroid and Castlevania games for this reason. The main reason DD was so wonderful to me was because there was so much to explore. It was fully open-ended, just like the Fallout series and Arcanum. There was a coherent plot, but you could explore your heart out with all the sub-quests. Most of the appeal of the game to me would be tainted if I learned that the only way to get a balanced game was to skip the battlefields altogether.
It's like buying an SUV (one of the hybrid ones, of course =P) and learning that it won't work offroads. One of the main selling points is useless now, and there's nothing to distinguish it from the hordes of other cars out there. If I wanted hack-n-slash alone, I'd play the Diablos, if I wanted strategy and plot alone, I'd go with Neverwinter Nights. It's the effective combination of the two that drew me to Divine Divinity, which got it down perfectly, and the promise of the same that keeps me coming back to Beyond Divinity. Now, I learn that if I continue doing what I like doing most, the game is not as much fun. It's probably not enough to keep me from the game, but it definately feels like I must go through the motions in clearing out the battlefield dungeons. Sure, I could practice self-restraint in not touching the dungeons, but that's would only make me more anxious and disappointed... I would know that there's something new to explore just around the corner, but I couldn't touch it unless I wanted to spoil the game later on. How exciting would an episode of Scooby Doo be if the Mystery Machine broke down, and the crew decided to look for help at the farmhouse a half mile down the road instead of the spooky, haunted mansion? =)
Besides, I like randomly-generated dungeons. It's the reason why I still try to play the Nethack/Rogue/Angband games, despite how difficult they get due to their own game imbalances. It's the reason why some gamers will deal with ASCII characters to play a game when there's tons of games with top-of-the-line graphics out there. Sure, BD's randomly-generated dungeons need a bit more variety... I can't count the number of times I've opened a chest just to find a plain leather cap, and it gets boring seeing the same large rooms over and over. Still, it's an improvement over DD in some ways. Though I'd prefer a few strategically placed, pre-generated mini-dungeons in the main game, the presence of vendors, whose inventory changes constantly and whose level keeps pace with yours, is really attractive.
Personally, I think the ability to change monster level in the game, maybe with a switch in the game difficulty submenu, would make the game much more challenging if you wish to select it. As far as I can tell, Hardcore mode only increases the number of monsters that appear, not the level, though I may be wrong there. There's little difference in difficulty between killing two monsters which are 7 levels below you, and killing 20. Ooh, you may use a health potion or two. That'll hurt your supply of 60+ potions. The main factor influencing the difficulty in slaying a mob is its level. It affects pretty much everything combat-related, from to-hit chance to chance to resist spells. Being able to change this wouldn't be too difficult to do in the next patch, I would think, and it would have a huge impact in being able to tweak the difficulty level of the game beyond the difficulty levels already implemented.
So, once again, I'll ask if anyone knows of any way to change the levels of mobs through hex-editing or any other means. It would restore balance to the game, and would make it much more enjoyable to me, and probably a lot of others, without sacrificing the game for those who find it challenging already.
