Long time DnD player/DM here (3.5/5/pathfinder), I've got about 7 hours in the game so far on 'classic' difficulty but have found almost every combat encounter after arriving at the Druid's grove has been pretty much impossible to beat. The temple near the grove had a fight with so many level 3, perhaps 4 skeletons with casters that I decided it must be intended to return to at a higher level. The problem has been that trying to follow the story always leads to similar scenarios, such as freeing the 'bear' in the goblin camp causes a combat encounter between at one point our party and 9 other combatants, all of whom were at least level 3. Has anyone else had this problem?
Inb4 people say git gud, however there seems to be little chance I could return at a higher level as xp gain is fairly slow and I've yet to find any side quests with an appropriate challenge for the party to gain said xp. Party composition seems to make little difference and I know as a DM for dnd that if I ever threw similar encounters at a party of lvl 1s, I would expect them to run away as it's certainly not winnable.
somebody please tell me I'm missing some significant mechanic or quest tree, as I suspect coming back with a level 2 party would have the hit points to survive it.