What difficulty?

You've got some pauses set, right?

Aye, what difficulty? If you're playing on Hard, which is basically equivalent to the BG Hardcore mode, it's designed to be tough. Basically though, as noted, use the pause options/space bar. Make sure you understand how Engagement works as well because you'll get waxed pretty quickly if you don't pay attention to engagement.

My first rough fight was against the two bears in the cave in that forest area. Probably took me 40 minutes to figure out how to get them with potions and food buff... and then repeating it over and over again until I got some crit hits.

well, maybe you shouldn't go to that cave so early in the game :p
same for the wolfs in the same area to the south, i just skipped them and went back later

was that not just one bear?
I play on normal because the game warned me to play on hard and even on normal the bear was very strong - me gusta.
I had to try it several times and only barely made it (i was level 3 at the time and only had the elf mage with me)

The encounters can have different/more creatures on higher difficulty levels. They do this rather than the typical scaling approach.

Which is awsome!

Btw I'm now getting stomped by everything cause I lost my figher & thief, with no hires to be found so far. :(
Playing Wizard! :-D

Go to an inn and you can hire an adventurer (or more), if you have the cash. These are the ones you create yourself.

Cool.
Thanks for the info! :-)

Two bears, a big one and a smaller one (yes, playing on hard). The problem was that endurance dropped very quickly to zero, although health was still high enough. I had to time my attacks very carefully and kill the smaller bear first and then hope for some good crits on the big one. It was impossible without endurance potions.

The bears smashed my rogue's face too.

So I loaded the save I had from just before entering the caves, made a mental note to go back later, and moved along!

Loving the game so far, but I will admit it's tough not knowing the general levels/abilities of mobs like I do for D&D. It's a fun challenge. :)

Aftre reading the comments here I avoided that cave like plague when I found it :D
Went back later to kick some bear ass :P

I'm playing on hard, so far the Skuldr King was the only enemy that managed to give me a proper headache, but after 10-15 attempts I was able to develop the winnig formation and strategy against him :)

If it's any consolation, there was a pre-release stream in which the streamer died in the same cave, and he had Josh Sawyer from Obsidian watching over his shoulder.