Here is a list of all the available Bonus Content and how to get it.

Normal is way too easy. Hard is way too hard.

Happy medium please Bioware? I would love to see a patch tone down hard mode a little (since I know they would never toughen up normal mode). The masochists still would have nightmare.

Call it advanced

Call it "takes effort."

Normal
Takes Effort
Hard
Nightmare

I attempted the rock wraith yesterday and I'll admit, turned it down from normal to easy just for that fight after dying a bunch of times and the whole fight feeling like a massive uphill battle. Funny though since I brought the same exact team Delixe did (with a rogue Hawke mind you) so I can agree that this team gets annihilated pretty quickly on normal.

I'm finally on chapter 2 now after 18 hours. Still enjoying it very much. :D

Nex time I am taking Anders and Bethany. Both for the magic and the storyline, most people will probably know why by now.

I am definitely going to bring Bethanty next time for story purpose. Probably Aveline or Fenris for tanking sake to see if they help me beat that fight on normal. :P

I'm still on Chapter 1 doing most of the sidequests in Kirkwall. Finishing though, still on Nightmare.

Can't wait for the Deep Roads.

Certainly possible if you skip every conversation and cut-scene but then what possible enjoyment to those people get?

I guess it also come down to which difficulty level they are playing on, I remember in DAO a section that took me roughly 6-7 hours in Nightmare, when I replayed it in easy mode to test others dialogue options and I was able to redo it in less than an hour without skipping any dialogues.

People looking for a challenge, well that Strider creature turned up from Awakening (cant remember what the Elves call it) and yeah... Everyone including the dog down and me chugging potions as quickly as the cooldown will allow. It was like the Golem room in Amgarrak again.

Edit: Wanted to finish a sidequest before calling it a night. It's called Forbidden Knowledge and it's semi-hidden you have to actually hunt for the locations and two are not marked. Hardest fight in the game by a long shot. Wiped out on normal with Varric, Fenris and Anders. Dropped to casual and was wiped out again O_O, third time lucky and it was only Varric left with bugger all health and some kiting. It's one of those Bioware demons with the X's in the name in this case Xebenkeck a souped up desire demon who brings in a load of rage demons and a Revenant. I tip my hat to anyone doing that one on nightmare.

This is incredibly moronic, I got the Ancient Rock Wraith down to 50% on Nightmare after 5 tries, and it went CTD.

Oh, if I'd had a cheap keyboard and that happened to me it would not have survived!

Booya, after the 7th attempt, Nightmare, counting the one that CTD. The whole fight took about 40 mins for me.

http://oi52.tinypic.com/2r4lzzo.jpg

Fight itself is not impossible. His damage isn't that huge at all, infact Aveline was attacking all the while without moving to evade. I felt the 2 Assassin Ship Captains was worse. It's just tedious as heck and you need to move alot. Some mechanics were copied from WoW's bosses like hiding behind pillars. Watch out for the little things he summons, can wipe your ranged if not countered immediately.
This fight is CRYING for an overhead view, it's a real pain to fight it without the overhead.