Pokey, I found a good way to make my deaths by the Stray Demon less annoying: each time you die go drop an item for the Crow; try  again, die again, and run back to the nest to receive your gift, drop another item, rinse and repeat. It's a fun little mini game I like to call "How many times can the Stray Demon kill me?"

There are some great trades with the crow. Each moss type nets you twinkling titanite; prism stones, dung pies and I think a sunlight medal get you demon titanite, and a surefire way to get a red titanite slab is to trade an ascended (just once) pyromancy flame. I did that and made myself a Chaos Longbow +5, very good bow! Also, if you still have that piece of Rubbish on you from the Undead Burg, it gets you a titanite chunk.

Pokey, I think you should be able to obtain the Large Flame Ember just before entering Lost Izalith, so it should be available even if the Lordvessel has yet to be obtained. You haven't gone to Anor Londo yet, have you? Or at least cleared it? You're going to run into almost purely physical damage there, so try to prepare your outfit for that. There's a bit of lightning damage here and there, but mostly I found Anor Londo to be a trial of patience: long physical battles ensue, so high endurance is a boon.

As I experiment with a few new characters I'm finding more and more that your gear outweighs your stats so very much. I've made a sorcerer-type character who, at level 14, has cleared Taurus, Capra, Belfry Gargoyles, Gaping Dragon, Quelaag, Moonlight Butterfly and the Darkroot Basin Hydra. This took a lot of work, but I went in with the goal of spending my souls on upgrades, gear, and spells rather than levels, save for some essential stat raises. I'm trying this for a few reasons. The first, is that I just want to see how far I can get into the game at such a low soul level (I have the minimum Vitality of 8, which gives me something like 530 HP). The second is that I like playing in human form and being able to summon help, which is surprisingly available at low levels almost everywhere I've been so far; I've also found that playing into later areas as such a low level reduces the chance of being invaded.

It's also a plus to lend your help sometimes and surprise (or "troll," as you might lovingly say) an incoming griefer who expected easy prey at level 10. Even if I fail half of the time, there's just something about defeating a griefer that is satisfying. Maybe it's a thankful host you defended, or perhaps just imagining the sour face of some jerk as they watch a loading screen send them back to their world. Or maybe they're all from Japan and are trying to do some serious role-playing, and it's actually me who is the jerk?

Spending souls on gear upgrades rather than soul levels holds true most especially for Pyromancy: as long as you're willing to farm the souls (and it's a lot of souls) you can have a fully upgraded Flame, which does ridiculous damage, very early in the game. All you need is access to Blighttown.

Also, when you know the layout of the entire world due to having finished the game previously, this brings quite an advantage. One of the first things I did with my sorcerer was access the Valley of Drakes from Darkroot Basin, battle two drakes (with a level 8 character this was hard as hell), dispatch the large undead dragon, and proceed into Blighttown to A) get the New Londo key (I selected Pendant as a gift - no Master Key) to unlock that shortcut, and B) head into the Great Hollow and pick up the immensely useful Cloranthy Ring.

One disadvantage I put myself at: I grabbed the Fire Keeper soul from Blighttown, not knowing that this would trigger Lautrec's ... event. So now at level 14 Firelink Shrine is useless to me. Until I can complete Anor Londo, of course. So a warning: do not do this if you like Firelink Shrine as a hub!