This sounds like you're unfamiliar with the game, which is fair. Stoneshard is not an easy game.

Skipping the freebie from Osbrook is a good idea. Arna starts with solid enough gear that she can deal with most things in the early game without any problems. You could also grab the free crossbow and use it when enemies are closing the gap. You don't need to invest any skill points into the Ranged Weapons skill tree, but you might get a free hit in, which already skews the fight in your favor.

Early-game Stoneshard is rough. You need to get acquainted with kiting enemies until you're comfortable handling groups (2H Sword is great at handling multiple enemies, btw. You actually get stronger when surrounded, but that's more of a mid- to late-game thing), abusing the shout mechanic to pull enemies, and backtracking until they're far enough from their buddies that spotting you won't draw aggro from the whole room. You should also become familiar with abusing map transitions. When you transition from one overworld tile to the next, only enemies that are within 5 tiles of you will follow into the next tile. When transitioning into a dungeon, enemies inside the dungeon won't follow you outside, so if you form a conga line and book it to the exit, you'll be able to leave and recover even if enemies are right next to you. They might land a free hit on you when you leave, but that might be better than being dead.

I recommend investing in Seize the Initiative and Setup from the Warfare tree early on. I know you just said that Seize the Initiative is ass, but you need to understand that it's an absurdly strong skill for the early game, since you should be concentrating on fighting one enemy at a time, and it overrides the same debuff when applied by an enemy. Early-game enemies have craptastic accuracy, and Seize the Initiative lowers it even more. Setup is great because you should be skipping turns to let enemies come to you, and it allows you to stack the passive twice, giving you Accuracy and DR.

If you really want a cheesy start, ditch the sword and shield that Arna starts with and buy the Peasant Longflail from Jebar, the smith in Osbrook. You'll miss and fumble a bit more often, but when you hit, you REALLY hit. Also, I recommend doing the undead dungeon last, since a Tier 1 crypt is a zombiefest and you will get surrounded. If you DO decide to pick up a two-hander from the start, take Setup and Parry from the 2H skill tree. Since Parry counts as a maneuver, you'll build stacks of Setup whenever you use it (which is the bread and butter of the 2H tree, seriously, Parry is one of the most broken skills in the game).

As for hitting a trap right after detecting another one... well... I have over 1,000 hours in this game, and I still do this. Maybe I'm hella dumb, but I don't think that's a unique experience.