Well, yeah. I got the impression that almost everyone is playing as a ninjadude. I don't care for that ****, but the stealth model just begs to be exploited. And when I say exploited, I mean "dead arrowsoaked necromancers naked on Fingerbowl cavefloor".
Edit: I shouldn't even be reading this thread, but if the difficulty really does take a huge leap when I hit the higher levels(4 right now), I'd like to know where and how to get equipment which helps me to tackle that.