I cannot see the problem with Difficulty or duration of Combat......
I guess its because i realy played all the DnD games long BEFORE even Baldurs Gate came.
I tell you something..... at the very SECOND you are NOT able to Rest anywhere and anythime the DnD difficulty spikes right into the sun. Even a bunch of stupid goblins you start to fear at lvl 5 when you know you CANT rest here. And trust me it totaly changes the way you build partys and what spells you make rdy with the classes. No old DND games had issues with difficulty.
You will suddenly realize that high damage classes arent that good anymore as you wanted more consistency in your party instead of MR. super crit 1-Hit wonder.
And thats how DND was build around from the Beginning. If you went into a Tomb for example you would never ever even think about doing this without a Cleric. Not because of Heal..... because of Turn Undead! And not because you couldnt kill all the undeads with your mage. But because they will rise and attrition you down and you cant Rest in that tomb as UD never rest andtend to rise again.
Its just people got used to having NO resource management and are all about BOOM BANG CRIT!
I can tell you that a experienced Party in DnD3.5 sits about for an HOUR sometimes only to discuss and Prepare spells and quipment for a Dungeon decent.
