You can get items very early on that are absurdly OP, far more than anything you'd get in tabletop even at max level. (Think of all the healing synergy items you can get very early on.)
I think an easy but decent solution to this would be give more enemies the same passives that these OP items grant the players. Lets take healing synergy passives for example. I imagine if there are more enemy clerics that can also AOE heal and apply the same buffs to their teammates, that would even the playing field a bit no? Not a perfect solution by any means but should still be easier to implement.
It would also fix a problem that i personally experienced in my playthru (not sure about other ppl), which was the enemy rarely ever healing so there was no reason for me to ever use Bone Chill or Ilmatter arrows, except for maybe 2 boss fights.
