@ sea: Have to disagree somewhat here. Yes, big health bars are definitely a problem (the High Dragon just.won't.die.). But the click-on-until-it-dies? From the exterior it may look like that, but not using ability combos (Cleave/Assault for example, or OP cross-class combos) makes Hard much more of a pain, and is practically a requirement every fight on Nightmare because you can't AoE your way to victory anymore. The longest boss battle is a duel, because no cross-class combos lowers your damage significantly. I began finishing an old save of Origins, and have an easier time at Nightmare than in the sequel at Hard, save for Ser Cauthrien of course
And as I have said before, I find character builds very good and amongst my favorite in RPGs (I am not a DnD fan at all, to be honest). Very few other games allow a warrior-type class so much utility and flexibility while still keeping it unique from the other 3 classes, far more than in Origins (where warriors were really linear and dull and rogues were squishier warriors with backstab and lockpicking). My only regret is that there is not enough threat management abilities, making fights too chaotic (the stupid wave system doesn't help at all), hell it seems many of those abilities have been passed on to rogues for some reason.
As for identical enemies, that's wrong on a level and true on another. There are Commander types that buff and heal troops, mages can wipe a whole party if you don't pay attention and those pesky Assassins deal huge (one-shot on Nightmare) damage to squishies if you do not reveal them beforehand via AoE or keep them on the move. On the other hand, yes, fighting demons or spiders or humans is almost identical, hell three unique demon types replace the three unique human enemy types.
@ Ravager: oh so very true. I somewhat understand the situation with Anders as it is critical to the plot, but stopping Merill while advancing her story should definitely have been possible, at worst just make her leave if you refuse to aid her. At least you can avoid butchering her whole clan, even if the option is pretty obscure.