From what I can tell on some other posts on the topic, I should be higher level. (8+?)
I did everything possible in White Orchard. All side quests, everything on the one notice board (there was only one), discovered all locations, everything.
Yet I came out just barely above level 4, which is making Velen very difficult.
I am playing on Blood and Broken Bones if that matters.
I do have a handful of mods, but none of them should have any real gameplay effects, they're all mostly QoL and so-on. Here's the list:
- Community Patch - Base (installed manually, the rest that follow were installed via Witcher III Mod Manager)
- Community Patch - The Besserwisser and Nitpickers
- Fast Stash Menu
- Fix Red Wolf Armor
- Friendly Meditation
- Horse Camera Tweaks
- Immersive Sound
- Item Selection Grid Fix
- Map Quest Objectives
- Community Patch - Menu Strings
- No Indignant NPCs
- Community Patch - Shared Imports
- Sort Everything
- Thoughtful Roach
- Unread Descriptions
- Window Glass Distortion Fix
Nothing in here is an overhaul or really much of anything gameplay related. Just patches and minor tweaks. They were merged properly.
Apparently there is an effect where you get less XP for a quest if you complete it above the requirement, but that only kicks in 5-6 levels above the requirement. So there's no way that could have had an effect. Side note, there's a mod to fix that here that works with the latest version.