Skill makes a real difference in play. Meaningful decisions should be made and maintained. No no-brainers. Variance in replayability, work with the hand that you are dealt. If you make good decisions (and know what a good decision even is from the aforementioned philosophy), you can grind out those wins, maybe even go streaking.
Oh, and be sure to use a shield.
Some skills are simply trained every game by every character. You need Fighting for HP, your flavor of Killdudes that fits your Species/Background combo, and some defensive skills: Armor, Dodging, Shields, preferably all 3. Stealth is picked up less often but the higher average aptitudes makes it less painful when you do.
Oh, but,
You found a +8 Triple Sword on D5. Long Blades 22 to get min delay. That’s 15,175 skill points. With that amount you could get Long Blades AND Shields to 16 each, hitting your min delay on your Double Sword and being able to OTab at your leisure.
Two handed is more fun, yes (You thwump the quokka!!!) and since larger damage is relatively better against high AC, it has its niche; but it is only that. Tournament runs disproportionately use Shields since more defense is often better than more offense when you can’t guarantee fast kills.
Introducing: Guarenteed Outgoing Damage (GOD) when 2-handing weapons. Also applies to one handed weapons when you are wielding nothing in your offhand.
GOD% = DAM^(1/4) * 12
No more rolling 5 damage on your 60 damage spiked club. Instead, enjoy a minimum damage of about 20 ish. No more getting chunked by yakks when you have 1.0 delay on your big weapon, carve with impunity.