1. Tactics and positioning are important, also stealth can be of great help. For stealth, you will see cones on the ground, this is the enemy detection radius. Currently the AI is rather stupid when it comes to stealth, they won't move to look for you if they can't find you. Use this to your advantage until you get used to the combat system. When wandering around anywhere, consider using stealth or at least being cautious everywhere. It takes longer but patience keeps you alive. For the goblin camp, consider infiltration to scout the area, don't just fight your way in. You can fight them in groups, just don't start with Dror Ragzlin, he alerts all of them. High ground is your friend, always use it. You can also shoot out some ladders after you climb up them so the enemies can't follow you. Barrels can be moved around without repercussions(dumb AI), use these for exploding stuff if you want. As for constantly missing, sometimes the dice just hate you.
2. Not sure how you are still level 2. I kill as much stuff on the ship as possible before getting to the last part of it, then the path I take once off the ship takes me to Shadowheart first, usually after I kill the next enemies I have leveled up.
3. Something that helped me was to change the game setting to make the compass stay in a fixed direction. Can't remember the name of this.
4. When you are ready to fight things in the Underdark, there are several other ways to get there. You don't have to do that puzzle.
5. I had bodies at my camp on one playthrough. Not sure how they got there either but I couldn't even decorate with them. Probably after release, these types of things will go away after some time.
