That would make it beneficial, early on I went duel wield and was no longer getting owned. And I'd use my bow to kill off enemies from afar that had too many of their buddies around. Mage vs Bow usually is bad for the mage as spells are easier to dodge.

Gonna be a few days before I can experiment due to work.

I'm hoping a Larian will at least comment on a thread about the difficulty issues.

Every time there I run into trouble on the road, there is always a dwarf at the bottom of it. Don't they know how to drive above ground?