There's a dozen techniques to defeat cave trolls. Don't give up!

Use the dodge action to dodge the attack of the enemy.

The troll health is a number. There's a lot of ways to reduce that number to zero. Explore them all.

https://youtu.be/uelA7KRLINA

Just sneak in, build a bunch of camp fires around where he stands, then hit him with an arrow to make him burn himself to death.

Yeah, leave them alone until you can deal with them mano a mano.

You can parry them with bronze buckler and wreck it with flint spear
Just learn how to meele in this game

tier 3 leather armor (or tier 1 troll armor) with tier 3 flint spear and a tier 1 or 2 bronze buckler should do the trick. The troll's slam can be hard to parry sometimes, you may just want to roll away for that attack. If you like a more bow heavy approach you could just fight the ones outside.

Manage your stamina, learn to roll, attack with pierce or slash weapon. Once you know how to time your rolls with trolls, they are a joke.

Another thing you can do to take down a troll is with an atgeir. You can use the middle mouse button to do a spin move which stuns the troll and because the atgeir does piercing damage, you can kill them pretty quickly.

Killing a Troll in melee is not that hard. Wasting you time by relying completely on the bow to avoid risk is a deliberate decision, not a sole solution.

I love how so many people in this game never use the dodge roll. Learn to use it. Never get hit again.

I have killed trolls in their caves with a basic finewood bow and lots of fire arrows.

There is not a lot of room for ranged attacks inside a troll cave. Neither is there a lot of room for the dodging required for a melee assault if one does not have the food, block skill and gear required to be able to block a troll's attack.

The first time I enter a troll cave, the troll is usually at the very back. One has to sneak about halfway in to catch sight of it. Two perhaps three bow shots, then run back to the entrance. If one is quick, one can turn and get another bow shot at the troll bearing down.

Then exit. Wait 20 or so real time seconds. Reenter the cave. Most of the time, the troll will be on his way back to the far end of the cave. Two quick shots and run. Even if the troll has not attempted to go deeper into the cave, one can usually get off one quick shot and run.

Yes, it is tedious and it does take a lot of game time. I don't do it unless I really, really need troll hide and cannot find a troll roaming in the Black Forest. Much less tedious to get the food, gear and sharpen the block and spear skills before going after trolls in their caves.

Why spear? Attack is faster than other melee weapons and trolls are weak to piercing.

Originally posted by Deaner:

Another thing you can do to take down a troll is with an atgeir. You can use the middle mouse button to do a spin move which stuns the troll and because the atgeir does piercing damage, you can kill them pretty quickly.

A man of class and skill. A true gentleman. One of superior breed to be certain. A king above pawns, one might say.

Wait until you're better trained and equipped and then kill them with melee.
There's no room in there for ranged attacks.
I prefer my silver sword... swish dodge/roll, swish, swish, swish = one dead Cave Troll ;)

you can sneak in and get off one bow shot, but until you can block their hits well don't poke at them in their lair.