You do realize that with a game of this size, if you had kept leveling the way you do at the beginning of the game, you would be crazy high level by the end of it? (unless you get capped at mid game!).
If anything, I think it's a little too fast paced at the beginning. Low level DnD can be very fun but in Wotr, you basically skip that by going to the mythic & cie very quickly.
That's how leveling in TTRPGs works. Pathfinder, D&D, most games. The more powerful you get, the more time it takes to take the next step up.
I am well aware of the basics of RPGs, yes.
The problem is a combination of scope, performance, chores, trash fights and what not leading to slow pacing. I replayed WotR twice from scratch, and the final third or so five times (based on a few savegames I created towards the end), but I would have loved to try even more combinations, mythic paths and so on.
However, that is simply not an option in either game for me. Way too much filler content that's more or less mandatory. A few examples of games that work vs games that don't in that regard:
Works well for me
- Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 (lots of filler, but most of it is optional)
- The Elder Scrolls (same)
- Gothic (not a lot of filler; very concentrated)
- PS: T (same as Gothic)
- NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer (same as Gothic)
- Etc
Would benefit from less is more
- NWN2 main campaign (too slow, nothing is optional)
- The Witcher 3 (some of it is optional, but way too much isn't, such as 20+ hours of looking for the bard)
- Pathfinder (both of them)
- Divinity: OS2
- Etc
That isn't to say I don't enjoy games from the second list. I very much do. However, I really think they would benefit from spending slightly less resources on generating more filler content in favor of higher quality content, bug fixes or performance fixes. To me, replay value is a very big thing, and the slow pacing and sheer amount of mandatory filler content prevents me from replaying games that are otherwise excellent, which makes it my main gripe with those games.