I will admit to not being averse to leveling up when I get the souls. I think you do end up a higher level in this game than either Ds1 or DS3. I am done with everything but 2 of the DLCs and I am in the 150s. I think even now a level only costs 30K + souls. In DS3 it would be double that probably and I don’t remember where that would fall in DS1.
Sorcery is highly doable in this game but I usually start melee and then re-spec later in the game for sorcery.