i've never actually played 2e dnd but from what i read here it sounds that getting to higher levels was a long and hard task. this looks in a way much more realistic then 3e where you get up in levels reletively fast (to months in game and you're already 10th level). after all advancing from near perfect to perfect is much much harder then progressing from newbie to avarge. i think it should take someone a few years to become such a good swordsman that he is able to take out opponents 10 times his size.