I started it last night and damn, it wasn't easy. I picked the bandit and I think I'm going to start over as a wanderer.
I got to the bonfire right in front of the demon and just kept going straight to him and kept getting my ass handed to me. It was finally when I died and wasn't able to recover that I finally looked around the courtyard with the bonfire and saw there was another way around. I felt kind of stupid for wasting that 30-45 minutes on that demon. :-p
It was an awesome feeling finally killing him with the dropping blow (though I missed the first time and died >_>).