As far as I'm aware none of the many supplements offers a less brutal experience. I remember reading somewhere that Rob Schwalb himself has never even attempted to run a long term campaign in this game. Which makes me think that was never a design consideration as well. So, you know, don't expect to run a year long campaign out of this.
That would not be the plan for it. I don't think that most campaigns last that long anyway.
We played around with it being tied to your spellcasting attribute modifier and adjusting the saves that way, but honestly you're still being outclassed by monsters at that point.
Nerf the monsters? I read elsewhere that the frighten/corruption/etc. rules were meant to balance higher level parties. If it's too much, in your experience, then maybe take it out? I don't plan on the grmidark insanity stuff anyway.
The game is fun. The thing is, I'm not sure I would play it again if given the choice. It's obvious setting and tonal inspiration is WFRP, which I would rather play as you get deeper and more impactful decisions to make at leveling and even though you're often outclassed by what your'e facing in that game it doesn't feel as necessarily pointless in some attempts as it can in SotDL with like, 3 banes stacked on you (which can happen relatively easily). On the other hand, as a short term fantasy type game that isn't made to support long term play per se but gets to the big cool stuff super quick, I'm not sure why you would play this over say, DCC RPG.
I have a copy of DCC, and I can't say that I was impressed or inspired to run it like I was with SotDL. So maybe different strokes for different folks?
Question: If you have 3 banes, they don't stack right? But it's likelier though that you are getting -6 to the roll when trying to roll a d20 to beat 10?
On a complexity level I would say it's at roughly a 5e level. There are a number of conditions to keep track of and just like in 5e most ultimately impose boons or banes (in lieu of advantage/disadvantage). I would say SotDL offers slightly less variety and interesting options to choose from at leveling than 5e does, and 5e doesn't really shine in this department over previous editions (Not saying that's good or bad, but just trying to deliver a sense of scale using relative terms).
One of the appeals to me, IMHO, is the class and magic structure. I like magical traditions, which largely dispenses of divine/arcane magic. So it's easier for me to say, "Okay, well if you belong to Temple X, these are the associated traditions," or "If you are a mage who went to School A, then you would have familiarity with traditions 1, 2, 3, but if you were a mage who went to School B, they typically taught traditions 4, 5, and 6." In this case, I like having less options, since I would like the homebrew setting to reflect more of a precursor to D&D (e.g., Dawnforge).