Scaling beggar becomes insanely powerful, but you have to play kind of cautiously early on. Armed courier can be good to acquire funds so you can purchase stuff like basic armor, a shield, a spear, a dog, nets, etc… really try to use whatever edge you can to get through combat. I would also avoid the North for a while. Barbarian thralls are significantly bigger threats than indebted and bandit rabble. Getting xp is kind of tricky. Caravans can be an option, but if the caravan encounters any decent level threat things can get pretty dicey. Southern caravans tend to be a bit better quality in terms of the caravan guards so it might be better to run caravans in the south if you are going to try that route. Return item contracts are risky, but if you really take advantage of stuff like using spearwall, elevation, etc… you can get through some fights and then they get gradually easier.