I had a thought. You guys know this was based on Dungeons and Dragons, right?
Low level characters were very pathetic in that game. You missed a LOT. On a 20 sided die you often had a 25% chance to hit something, depending on what it's defense was. A damned wizard could get one-shot-chumped by a FUCKING HOUSE CAT.
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If the devs were used to this sort of play, and obviously they certainly didn't mind things taking a long time to level (surely both for reward and their own pockets vis subscriptions), then it even makes a good bit of sense for melee characters to suck hind tit for awhile. Eventually your skills get to the point where you almost never miss, but NPCs have so many HP that it more than compensates.