Ruin Explorer
Legend
The thing with Elden Ring is, there's always a solution, but sometimes that solution is just going and grinding souls (or whatever they're called in Elden Ring) to raise your Vigor - i.e. HP, or improving your weapon/summon (which can also take some grinding and/or exploring - rarely is your armour the issue, interestingly) and sometimes it's changing your approach so vastly that it isn't doesn't seem like it would work! And that all can be pretty challenging or annoying.I got quite a long way into Elden Ring, but never finished it. Sorcery was my build, never could really get into melee type characters. I got on okay with it until eventually I reached a boss that would reliably one-shot me if it landed a hit, and I just couldn't find a solution for getting past them without taking that hit.
Personally I subscribe to the theory of "at least 20 Vigor as your #1 priority" and then "40 Vigor as soon as is practical after that" (i.e. after raising stats to reach minimums necessary for your weapons/sorceries etc.), because even naked, with 40 Vigor it's very close to impossible to get genuinely one-shot (which is indeed the main threat on certain bosses). Once you've got 40 you should be able to handle everything until NG+.
I really love Elden Ring though because there's just something weird depresso vibe of the world/setting that absolutely works for me in a way more traditional grimdark (c.f. the Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, for example) or cheerier games do not. Also the weird Graeco-Arthurian vibes of the mythology/lore absolutely rock.