On my first run on "balanced" I had a very stressful time due to the oppressive difficulty of the early game. Since then I managed to do a tactician playtrough without any significant hurdles. It felt MUCH easier than my first attempt. The difference was in my increased knowledge of the game mechanics. The game gives you enough tools to handle any challenge, but it cannot reasonably expect any beginner to immediately recognize and use them. This is where inconsistency of difficulty balance comes in. All major battles are like puzzles, and once you know a solution, they become trivial.
On my troubled first attempt I was stuck in the Shattered Sanctum for a while trying to figure out how to deal with Dror Ragzlin. It seemed almost impossible. Then I've found some explosive barrels in a room nearby... Much later when I arrived to the House of Grief I knew instantly that this is the perfect place to use one of the runepowder barrels I've stolen. It was quite satisfying.
