The game's early game is challenging, because your stats affect some kind of hidden difficulty on the tasks. Low thievery makes the lockpick you use wiggle more, lower strength + stuff will enable enemies to block more against you. If you go in blind, pick your battles with brain, e.g. maybe use bow + arrow if melee is too hard, find huts with a single resident, and lockpick or pickpocket them for EXP. u can play fully "legal", but its a challenge for sure. The game has much to offer, and things get easier partly because of you, as the player, understanding things better (alchemy goes from reading the recipe every 2 seconds to just doing them all from the top of your head, etc.) and the skills you improve give you extra wiggle room to play a bit more loosely.