I have a question? 

How do our stats work? If as said in the OP a level one character actually has a decent chance against a level 9 one, does that mean they don't really raise much by level?

Do they raise by class and items mostly or by whatever actions are repeated? (similar to skyrim, where shooting a bow adds to leveling up the bow stat) 

EDIT: Preemptively apologizing if this has already been answered lol