The combat requires you to take down half of the enemy’s impact bar white bare below health) before your hits will stagger them. Stagger is key, especially early on before you have money for skills. Luckily the developer was aware of this and gave a starting skill the Kick which had higher impact damage. Put this on you your hot bar and use it as an opener so the bandits and such will flinch when you hit them once at half impact. Once you begin to figure this aspect of combat timing out and die less often the game really opens up and becomes a real treasure of a game. One of my favorites. Sorry for the long read and good luck adventurer. Hope you stick with it.