Fought mostly with Ravelli (armed and blades skill in 90's) and some with Lil (moderate pick skills around 50). Dodge skill started at 5 and went no higher than 10.

You are missing on some of your goals.

Small creatures, even rats and marmots are not fighting back or are not attacking until being hit 2-3 times by which time they are dead. My dodge started off at 5 and I was still able to get behind most creatures, specially on level paved surfaces.

Was jumped from behind by large bears (no time to con them) several times when I couldn't sprint. Did not take damage but had screens of missed attacks at 5-6 m ranges. This is with 100 run skill an between 40-50% encumbrance.

Low level mutants were not difficult to kill except when they joined a fight already in progress. E.g. a 122 hp 40% hornback marmot was easier than a 122 hp green (60%) coyote.

Old habits die hard and at times I backed up and charged my attack. This didn't totally avoid attacks, but was able to trade one fully charged attack for a smaller return attack. As DDT said, charging attacks doesn't pay in the current system, excepting the first player attack. My best success came from putting a blade in both hands and right/left clicking as fast as I could. At least with high skilled blade attacks there doesn't seem to be any delay.

Turning on creatures may be a little slow, specially for smaller creatures. It is still better than the old system where a large bear could instantly spin to attack the nearest character.