My most survivable character was a nightblade assassin. Basically, carry a dagger, sneak, and be REALLY good at calm spells.

If you calm absolutely eveything, you can easily sneak up behind them and sneak attack them. If they don't die initially, calm them again and sneak behind them again to try again. Eventually you will do enough damage to one hit kill almost everything. Just avoid dragons for quite awhile, as they will be your only real problem. The fury/frenzy spells will also help you eliminate groups from a distance without revealing yourself.

Definitely not the most exciting combat character, but very survivable.

Edit: OH, and don't craft ANYTHING until you are about level 15 or so.

well one caveat on that...do the freebie crafting tutorial, and when you get overloaded with furs and things, DO turn them into leather and make bracers...it's free, which is the best price of all. I usually craft jewelry as well, for the cash, assuming I can get a good supply of gold/silver bars without buying them from merchants.

this seems a little masochistic!

I think this is good advice. Early crafting will push you through the levels too soon and with a deficit in your basic combat skills.
I would focus on Block and one-handed...use wolves in the Riverwood valley to train them up (ie dont kill the wolves).
Use save games before real fights to train in the use of your fighting skills. I die a lot because I screw-up in the heat of battle; I forget to have the right weapon equipped or just push the wrong keys etc. So sometimes I save before a difficult fight and then re-run the fight multiple times just to train.
I admire what you are attempting; I will do that too when i know the game a bit better.
There is a DiD thread; maybe you will get some good advice there.
Hope you will persist.

To me DiD seems like a real pain but hats off to those who play it.

I want to see as much of this world as i can and simply don't have the time or inclanation to start a new character each time i make a stupid mistake.

My in game deaths help me to learn the limits and capabilites of my character.

If it's taking away from your enjoyment of the game, why do it?

Um...what was the problem again?

This is it. Specialization is the key. If you start getting reliably wasted past level 15 or so, your perk points are too spread out. Stick with two, maybe three perk trees. And at level up, at first stick with just two - either health and magic, health and stam, or magicka and stam. It depends on your build. I had an atronach mage who never wore armor - and was also almost never hit. I put every level-up into magicka for a very long time, which gave me plenty of magic to kill bad guys.

Worried about hauling loot? Get a follower. Matter of fact, they make great tanks. Especially if you get an essential follower, such as is assigned to you during some quests (I'm thinking the Companions questline - your shieldbrethren are immortal and you can take them anywhere you want before completing the Companions quest).

The point is, you MUST specialize. It's the only way to survive DiD.

Of course those followers can't carry loot.