Seriously, what bow are you using? And get the hell into the options and lower the difficulty
You're not cheating. It's not cheating. If you're getting frustrated, there's no reason except for stubborness not to - and then you can hardly blame the game for that.
You level up your skills as you use them. There's no dead ends - if you need something higher, just use it! There isn't a cap or limit on the amount of skills you can raise. With every build I've made I've been able to play without much difficulty - and only one of them was a pure fighter. Now, the other RPGs you mentioned, you don't build your character how you want. You follow set paths, where you choice is between two or three skills at most.
My first character was a thief. With a decent longsword, he was doing quadruple damage and could sneak in plain sight. I've always felt the scaling to be 'right' - there's enemies that have minimum levels, and maximum levels. Rats don't get to level 20. You end up fighting against different forms of enemies, not just harder ones that are the same.
My best guess is your equipment is crap