Character level in Dark Souls 3 really couldn't actually be any more misleading to new players. Its not a character level in the typical sense of RPGs. It is literally your attribute point counter, that's it. Leveling up will only give you more room for errors. In dark souls, skill and knowledge of how to play the game trumps character stats, as people have said keeping your weight below the 70% threshold will help you loads. You will
never out-level the game. Everything has fair opportunities to kill you, should you give it to them. Co-op is what makes the game much easier and enjoyable for people who don't enjoy the difficulty of the game.
Having a character build to aim for helps too.
Dark souls is fair most of the time. If you blame the game you'll never learn from your mistakes, if you blame yourself you'll get better at the game.