So I got Caed Nua established pretty early on, and was told to go handle some siege at Crägholdt. When I went, I ran into some crazy fights with large groups of merceneries, which I could not handle, and had to back away from that to go do something else.
Something else wound up being the Endless Paths of Od Nua. I got my party all the way to the bottom level by character level 10, and handled the fight with the spirit of Od Nua just fine. Well, anybody who's gotten that deep knows what's on the next level—a nearly impossible fight with an ancient dragon.
These giant leaps in difficulty seem strange, but then combat in this game is very swingy depending on little things at the beginning of a fight, like character AI pathing or whether I hit Pause at just the right/wrong moment. Anyhow, I am wondering if I am doing something very wrong, or if I should not be expected to handle these fights at level 10.