As a rule, I usually only held levels until reaching Arnika (party being L5 on leaving monastery). After that, everyone went up in the normal fashion.
By the way, if the road is too difficult, you can always save before leaving the monastery, then reload that save if the critters are too tough. Enemies are generated randomly when you step outside, and sometimes you can get a bad mix, low level or not.
Nightowl2
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