To be fair, you can sidestep the skeletons' arrows and bash their face in with your fists, if you need to; all it takes is some rudimentary timing, and I'm speaking as a 50-ish guy who doesn't play first-person shooters any more because his reflexes are shot. I'm not trying to say "git gud", but "running away" isn't the solution you're looking for.

Combat (as with everything else in this game) is actually relatively slow-paced. In addition, auditory cues are as important as visual ones. I would like to recommend that you get a shield, and just hold block while some meadows mobs hit you, so you can learn about their timing... and once you have the timing figured out, you can dance right up and poke 'em in the nose any time; whether you have a weapon, or a shield, or not. Bare-knuckle brawling even the Black Forest's graydwarves is totally doable (although you might wanna wait until you have some way to mitigate poison damage before tangling with the shamans, and a shield is highly recommended for the brutes).

Learning to dodge-roll is important, too, but it can wait until you've got the hang of block/parry. That single mechanic is a game-changer.