Being a spell caster in the early game is very punishing

[DJ SHOWDOWN]

I've already beaten the game, was a spell caster mostly. Started this game up again and it's a night and day difference. I was just playing on normal but was getting 2 shot by most things. I'm around level 10, doing the cemetary quest like I did last time but the stone knights were both super tanky but also able to chase me down. I expect being a glass that I can get taken down easily but I wasn't doing any damage despite taking every damage boost I could find in the spirituality tree. My question is what I'm supposed to do early game, hunt deer? A deer gives me 30 xp and a wyrdspawn that 2 shots me on easy gives me 45 xp. I tried easy just to see the difference and everything still 2 shots me in light armor. I know I could armor up and grab a shield to combat this but I feel like the game isn't letting me take the role of a mage. I can dodge attacks the best I can but all these baddies seem to aggro from like 50 feet away. I only have fireball and a lightning bolt so far. I wanted to get into summoning but I haven't found any of those spells yet. Is there a place I can go to find more spells?

[Sir MadGeorge]

Spell caster is fun and decently powerfull. I have started new game on hard dificulty to test it. Here are some of my tips.
main damage - 2xburning ember (you have to play prologue to he 2 from start)
heal - mothers blessing (corpse on coast)
control - winged servant - location East gate - strong enemies chase raven and you regen mana
second damage - hailstone - location Penisula

and necromancers robe from blood lake for starter equip +mana and regen

With this you can easily gain levels.

[Sir MadGeorge]

I was lvl 15, hard difficulty and stone knights inside crypt easy walk, blast blact blast, winged servant, little wait for mana regen, winged servant... mana regen and blast blast blast. Most OP spell Winged Serpant.

[DJ SHOWDOWN]

Thanks guys, I'll give that a try!