Larian did a really good job in indirectly leading your way once you've understood the system. It's not classic hand-holding in the traditional way but it's "systemic" guiding.
Problem with systemic guiding is that 2 levels difference made no difference to
me, I honestly thought Larian wanted to give us a real challenge for once where we couldn't steam roll and control every battle but had to think... I am not bad at these kind games ,p I just completely missed the scroll and didn't want to kill the shrooms. but hey, I had a very pleasing experience in Hiberheim when I did that .. I was level 16 at the boss fight there... and I outleveled most enemies from then on out.