Ah... A subject worth logging in to comment on.
I personally think that the slow monotonous combat that's been described in this thread as being "difficult" is less a fault of grinding... And more of over simplification of the games tactics.
To put this into context, I'm a crazy E1-3 fan. BoE too. I loved the rich, open optioned tactical combat. There were creatures bigger than you, and you could form up a shield wall for your mages. And your mages had tactically distinct although sometimes not too dissimilar spells in a large variety to cast. Albeit I'm talking more E3 at this point.
There were also three different melee weapons--though certainly their distinctness could have used a little work. Also, we had 6 party members rather than 4. This allowed for more of a tactical squad, than 4-buddies adventuring through hell. It also gave enough to actually form protective tactics such as per say, a shield wall. (Doubly so since there was something of a threat area that was difficult to pass through without dieing horribly.)
And y'know what? I loved it. The beautiful setting was just the rich-dark-chocolate-icing on the cake.
To top it all, the setting was immersive, cities were dots on the map you entered. Seriously it was sad to loose this. It gave a good feeling of scale that was seriously lost with the all-one-map(or ugh, geneforges map system) Exile(Or Avernum if you prefer) felt like a MASSIVE area. In the more recent games it feels... a bit... tiny.
Atleast to me though, each newer game in Spidwebs series's following E3 though, the tactics have gotten simpler and more cut down. Geneforges earliest games bounced back a little, but quickly followed this pattern too. And there are the occasional small bounces back. But overall the original games remain on a whole other level... Albeit they had their own horrible balance (and AI) issues.
I'm not saying I want to see the E1-3 engine again. I'm saying I want to see its quantity and quality of choice and tactics again. It's a rarity in games... And was once Spidweb's specialty.
And with these more rich tactics? Comes more actual difficulty... rather than just a wall you have to grind away at. Things like asking yourself "Do I want to use the less efficient, less reliable, or most reliable and efficient method" for a particular instance.
<.< But that's just one fans ramblings.