tarmangani

I actually came here to make the same post. Yes, the animancy hearings naturally halt the game's progression. My party retired to Caed Nua until the duc held the hearings in which my characters were scheduled to appear. Kana encouraged the exploration of the dungeons below, in the meantime, until discovering Gabrannos' tomb, at which point he, so disconsolate over those troubling findings, returned above ground. This fortuitously means that my party avoids the brutal fight at the end of Level 7, too, a nice side effect when doing TC. And so they sit, in this narrative, until venturing to White

You'll need to buff (accuracy mostly) and debuff more than other levels of difficulty.

The purpose of the machine in Heritage Hill (Teir Nowneth) seems to involve ripping and tethering souls. Kana's horrified by this possibility, seeing no objective but madness, and so proposes that Nowneth was experimental, an early-stage construction. His theory makes sense; as the Engwithans developed their soul manipulation science, they'd have to start somewhere. They'd probably make some machines without a clear purpose to generations eons later. You see this theme in the Endless Paths, too, where we learn that Gabrannos experimented with the elements in an early attempt to manipulate soul

Because paladins shine as a support class, they (imo) don't need to worry so much about min/maxing. I just rolled through PotD with my MC paladin who had a mismatch of stats. Although he began and specced as a shield "tank," for most of the game he ran around with a 2H. Didn't do nearly as much damage as another class would, but, like you, I have a soft spot for the Carsomyr vibe. Everything you suggested is viable in PotD. The challenge in PotD depends on where you are. Early on it's tough, since you have no abilities, but if you know encounters well, craft items, and position/pull intell

Just to support what others have said: I've been replaying over the past few weeks, logging a lot of hours, and the game runs fine. No crashes.