Mods can change difficulty a lot. Specifically Creature Level and Loot Control mod.
This mod scales difficulty on 3 basis:
1. Stronger enemies further away from start point
2. Enemies become stronger with each boss killed
3. Enemies become stronger based on days passed in your world

There are also zone levels - Enemies become stronger when you keep slaying them in the same zone. It goes up to level 3 which means more starred enemies will be spawned in that zone. And cooldown timer for zones to reset to level 0 is really long (dont remember exactly, but this can be configured). Also, if you increase one zone to level 3, all the neighboring zones will be increased to level 2 and their neighboring zones to level 1.

And if this is not enough for you, it also has two more tweaks for enemies - colors and infusions. So you will be fighting armored fire infused greydwarfs, regenerating frost infused trolls etc…

Everything is adjustable and if you want to set enemies to more than 2 stars, i suggest to add another mod that will improve your stats. Epic loot or jewel crafting mod is a good choice, together with honey+ mod for a slightly better foods.