Beyond Divinity was released in 2004. Divinity 2: Ego Draconis was released in the US on January 5th, 2010 (an add-on is expected about September).
Withering Curse can be resisted, unlike the Survivor's Curse spell. I know even level 1 of Curse can be cast repeatedly on a target fairly quickly (to be followed by elemental or poison damage); I'm not sure if the effect for Withering Curse stacks.
The average ending level is around the mid forties to the low fifties; without cheating it would be very difficult to get much above level 53.
