Is this game just insanely hard or don’t I know what I’m doing? I’m a paladin on easy and I’m getting crushed by skeletons in the graveyards!

1. Is there anything like a town portal? That’s BS if you have to run back to town from crypts just to buy/sell stuff
2. Does everyone literally buy 20-30 health and stamina potions for every battle just to survive? If so how do you have any money to upgrade equipment?
3. The equipment requirements baffle me. If I want to use a weapon do I just look at the melee skill or something else? I add points to the skills to increase resistances but they remain at 0, why?

Any suggestions on how to play a melee paladin would be appreciated. I really don’t want to quit playing this game already, but its pushing my limits…

Well I was in the same boat up until a few days ago.
I play a paladin on normal, and was getting tore up by werewolves and ghosts and it was getting so frustrating I was ready to quit too.

Now I tried to experiment with equipment that has the "X amount of resistance against lightning, frost, fire and physical damage" attribute. I have helmet, boots, gloves, shield, full plate armor, and 2 rings with damage resistance now.
It took me a few hours of rolling at the shops (every time you close the shop window it changes inventory), but I eventually got enough to have about 73% resistance against all those things now and it is a LOT easier.

I completely ditched companions since they suck up all my potions.
Also I have smithing very high so I can repair gold equipment now.
Reroll a while too until you get a nice +100 damage against all enemies weapon, makes a huge difference.
Against ghosts, a weapon with lighting/fire/frost seems to work a ton better than regular damage.

Thanks, but how do you get enough gold to buy that stuff? everyones only dropping 2, 4, 8...
Also, what skills are you bumping up to use that better stuff? just melee and armor or something else?

melee is broken in this game and no one can get through without extreme power gaming ability. Your better off sticking with a bow or ranged weapon for either a paladin or thief class.

Melee isn't broken at all. It might be hard in the beginning and it might not be the best system of all times, but I got through the whole game as a paladin and it wasn't that difficult.

At first I put most of the points (about 75%) into melee, amor and shield. At the same time I brought most of the magic schools to level 6 (but I also used rings, amulets, belts and amor to get there), so I could use some of the spells (I don't remember the correct names, but most important for me were resurection, healing, floating and reflect damage).

After a while I used most points for the two resistance skills (sturdiness and holy ...) and brought them two the highest level. After that and with a good amor there's nothing much left that can really hurt you.

Thanks. Can you explain sturdiness and holy? I got both up to the next level (disciple i think) but all my resistances are still 0, am i doing something wrong?

Not sure how exactly it worked. I think sturdiness lets you take more physical damage without loosing health points. Holy deals with magic attacks, but I'm not sure if it's visible in your resistances or if it just gives a bonus to the resistances you already have.

I uninstalled the game after I completed it, so I can't look it up. Maybe someone else can exactly tell you how these two skills work.