I'm not that far into my new game, but the meogits on the ship now use aoe a lot and in the cave, where you can save the gnome druid, there are those watcher statues in the beginning of the Dungeon. First time, I entered that cave, my whole party got wiped, since it took me too long to figure out, where the save spots are. Now that I know, where the Watchers are, I just destroy them with arrows from afar.
Haven't gone to auntie Ethel yet, the fights in the blighted village seem unchanged, the spiders too.
