Is it me, or do the monsters get even tougher after Blackmarsh? Mazaera had the Were-Panthers and Were-Jaguars. Thysis had the Mummy and Mummy Lords. Septimus had Archer Lords and Medusa. Blackmarsh revisited had the Fallen Angels. And then all the golems across the hubs. All these enemies absorb tons of damage, even from the most powerful weapons. And don't get me started on how hard, Pestilence and War are.

The difficulty seems to be a bit imbalanced in this game. Why did the game producers make this game so hard?

Oh, the monsters definitely get tougher, I do believe.

Personally, I only really find it trying in Septimus: the third weapon is usually pretty effective against Were-Jaguars and Mummies, I feel.

But those Archer-Lords... those guys can just soak up damage.

The Fallen Angels are real pains, of course--but at least relatively-uncommon ones, unlike the Archer Lords in Septimus.

Of course, much depends on the player's class, and the difficulty-level: the Assassin in particular can be hard to fight with against the tougher enemies, I find, due to her weapons.

I can't speak with authority as to why they designed the game so. At a guess--and very much a guess--maybe it's a combination of the general design philosophy of the day and the fact that Hexen II has relatively few enemies per room.

It may also be that the designers expected players to make greater use of their fourth weapon--which can very much destroy even Archer Lords--and their various items. (I know that I likely under-use both.)

So far, I'm finding the Necromancer easiest to use. Bone Shards is better used at closer range for much greater damage while Magic Missiles are better at long range. The Raven Staff seems to be better when powered up.

I don't think that I've ever embarked on a full Necromancer playthrough (I don't like his backstory).

My own mainstay is the Crusader: he has a solid ranged weapon in the second slot (frozen solid :P), and a meteor-based rocket-launcher in the third! I don't recall whether I liked or disliked the Crusader's fourth weapon, offhand.

Plus that second weapon powers up to a pretty effective AOE attack, and even the base melee weapon powers up to become a ranged weapon!

Just... be careful with the empowered version of the Crusader's third weapon: it's effective--buuuut it also sometimes gets enemies stuck out of reach, such as behind walls. ^^;

Oddly enough, I also had an easier time with the Assassin. Once I got her Scarab staff, I found it to be the best weapon for kill off all those really tough enemies. Just power it up to the max and those enemies fall easily! Grenades are best used for bosses when powered up with the Tome of Power.

I find it odd that the 'truly heroic' characters, the Paladin and the Crusader have it tougher than the 'Villainous Protagonists', the Necromancer and the Assassin.

Ah, that's interesting!

I did find that the Scarab Staff was pretty powerful--it blasted those Archer Lords to bits, as I recall--but I'll confess that I hesitated to use it as it tended to chew through mana.

Conversely, I don't think that I used the grenades much against bosses, preferring to hammer at them with the Scarab Staff.

As to the heroic characters having it tougher, as I said, I actually found the opposite! Well, again, I haven't had a full playthrough with the Necromancer, but I found the Assassin rather tough to play as, and conversely loved my time with the Crusader!

(I did enjoy my playthrough as the Templar--but that was a more casual playthrough on a lower difficulty; I played the Templar on difficultly level two, I think that it was, and the Assassin and Crusader on difficulty level three, if I recall correctly. So I can't really compare the ease of playing the Templar fairly.)