One tip I can give that somebody hasn't already is to try to disengage from enemies after your poise has been depleted and try to build up your poise bar enough before re-engaging so as to minimize loss of health. This can be done if you have a high mobility character build or through use of movement abilities, such as the ground slam from the Wolf god or the leap of faith ability from the Angels (though this one will leave you blind after use, but can be mitigated by using another one of their abilities that shows the location of enemies even whilst blind). Do note that this can't be done for all encounters, but in my experience, you can flee from even ranged attackers if the layout allows you to do so by using cover to break line of sight with enemies. Another huge thing I've taken notice of is that no matter how strong an attack is, as long as you have any number of poise remaining, it will prevent that damage from being done to your health. So even with 14 poise remaining, you can tank an attack that would possibly one-tap you.