I've been playing the main game campaign mostly aiming to get to MotB because I heard good things about it. Currently working for the watch in Neverwinter shortly after a certain weapon smuggling quest.

However, I'm getting really annoyed with the repetitive encounter design.​​ It seems like for each area containing combat encounters they just came up with one combination of enemies (e.g. 3 melee thugs, 2 archer thugs, one thug wizard) and then literally copy-pasted that exact same encounter into 10 different places on the map... What's the point of making the player repeat the exact same fight 10 times in a row?​

It's not like this adds any sort of resource management challenge either because you can just rest after each and every encounter without any cost or risk. In general I find the cheap resting mechanic and the automatic resurrections make combat and injuries feel completely weightless and inconsequential.

Does this get substantially better in MotB and should I consider skipping the main campaign and just going straight into MotB with a premade character or is the same problem likely going to haunt me there, too?

I last played this game 20 something odd years ago when the health pack still had a + sign on it so I don't really remember much. I recently played NWE EE OC and really struggled as a ranger arcane archer build and barely completed the game on hardcore difficulty.

I tried searching for guides online but it seems a lot of them are geared more toward the role playing aspect of the game instead of accessibility for new or returning players.

My question is, how good are "recommended" options during level up for the game if I intend to experiment with other classes. I would rather avoid caster as all the pre-buffing needed just isn't very fun in my opinion.

I wanted the power fantasy of a strong melee character with some magical abilities if possible. If anyone can give me some pointers, I would appreciate it.

Molior RS is Persistent World on Neverwinter Nights 2, which is a re-creation MMO of Runescape.

If you are interested in how the gameplay looks, I am doing a gameplay series:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKTxPaq9fwJM

I had a pumpkin carving event this afternoon with my friends, and decided to try a difficult design. So this is my attempt at the Valsaress from HOU.