moonshineshadow: Huh? Are you just running around in the world? Because at the beginning you should follow the mainquest until you get a little bit stronger since there are dangerous corners everywhere. And even later, if you go exploring you can easily run into too hard enemies, that just means, run away and come back later ;-)
I am sorry, I am not sure how to really help you, since I am not sure what exactly the problem is, I never felt like there was something special you need to do to get into them. Perhaps you can get a bit more into detail?
Ah yes and for Gothic 1, blocking attacks is really helpful especially when you are not that strong and normally it is no problem to time it right since the enemy attacks are visible.
Maybe because I think the game is too hard like Wizardry hard and I try to do sidequests but I always run into stronger enemies and I also don't know how to progress like get gold to buy better equipment and to train.