The fights are actually pretty easy, just save your Mana for later and chain card effects
You're both right. Fights are really annoying with the starter deck, but once you have a good number of Gather and Stockpile and big mana potions and etc they become real easy- I just beat the Elf Warrior on Hard without losing a second armor piece. I'm not sure what I would suggest for balancing that isn't just, "turn it into a different game."