I also hated the unkillable death knights, but after a while I quite enjoyed the stealth component. They seem to have reduced the number of them too, which makes life a bit less frustrating. They're also not a long-term worry, happily.
The spiders are annoying, though as I've discovered a few times in this game, coming back later makes them rather less so. Sigh, rather bad memories of other games where I've tried to take on certain challenges too early: one that particularly sticks in my mind was that spectral dog early on in The Witcher. I was about ready to throw my PC out of the window before finally deciding to go and do some other quests instead.
The shambling oak... has another solution. That's rather less irksome. There are some people nearby who are worth talking to; or looting, if they're not feeling very friendly.
