^{Getting ready for a new playthrough, how difficult is POTD anyway? Want to make sure it isn't like... half your spells and abilities are useless, only certain builds are viable, and you have to minmax/use custom adventurers?}

It's hard (especially after rebalancing). You will reload . Half of spells are useless (sorry:P) and many builds are viable. You don't need to min/max and you can do it with your companions instead of mercs.

Half the spells aren't useless, only the ones that were comparatively crap in the first place. Many builds are viable, and story companions are just fine. It makes tactics and preparation much more important.

Imagine playing a character for 50 hrs facing the final boss. Do you not think you would get a big thrill

 

And then you would have to replay the 50 hours of content you already beat to try again? Don't know about you but I wouldn't bother.

 

What's the point of making you redo challenges you already mastered, that's not difficulty, that's just padding out the game so it takes longer.