Originally posted by Zep Tepi:

Don't rush in, make them come to you and try not to alert all of them at the same time. If it has stars, leave it be for now. If there are some greydwarves nearby you can lead them to each other and they will fight, giving you a chance to get away, or just sneak and wait to see who wins.

This right here is an amazing mechanic you will end up using the entire game from Dark forest to MIstlands. Start getting good at it now because it will save your life your entire playthrough. The enemy of your enemy is your friend.

Use a club (or a torch) against the skeletons. That spear is going in between those brittle old bones and doing little damage. A nice solid whack with a club will break those bones. A torch will break those bones and set them on fire. (When your skill is in the single digits the torch will do slightly more damage than the club to skeletons)

Move slowly. If you see it before it sees you, you can get a shot in with your bow. If you hit the skeleton before it has an exclamation point over its head that shot will do double damage. You can then activate your wooden shield and your club quickly if you put them in the numbered hot key slots in your inventory.

The shield is important throughout the entire game. Make sure you have one and learn how to time your block. A parry block is trickier to learn how to use but more effective. Time your defensive moves. Right click to block. If you right click just as it starts to swing (or shoot an arrow) you parry block (if the shield is a buckler style shield) and stop more damage from hitting you. This can also stagger the opponent if its not too much more powerful than you are. A staggered opponent will stand there with arms windmilling for a couple seconds. If you hit them when they are staggered you do double damage.

You can also do the roll dodge. While in motion press and hold the right mouse button and then press the space bar. If you use the same timing as the parry block you will roll out of the way and take no damage from the attack. You have to get the timing right though, if you hit the mouse and the space bar at the same time you will jump and the enemy will hit you and the more powerful ones will send you flying (literally) this can be bad if you are fighting on a slope as falling damage can also kill you especially with early game gear and bad/no food.

Originally posted by shangoose:

A blunt weapon is your friend.

This.

I am a spear fighter myself but not against the skelies, basically you always ought to be carrying two weapons (plus a bow) if you can and the two should compliment each other. Look at the damage numbers Yellow means increased as the target is vulnerable to that type Grey is reduced. Spear is a pierce weapon so half the time your stabbing between bones doing nothing with Skels. The Troll on the other hand will take heaver damage from that spear...

At your level get that club out OR if you have iced the stag consider the stagbreaker double handed hammer. You'll find it useful later on on and underneath the Black Forest ;)

Listen for that weird crunching sound they make when they get ready to fight. That will tell you if one has spotted you. Slowly back up to lure it away from its buddies before they see you too. And if you hear sounds of fighting nearby, it's probably them.

Don't rush in, make them come to you and try not to alert all of them at the same time. If it has stars, leave it be for now. If there are some greydwarves nearby you can lead them to each other and they will fight, giving you a chance to get away, or just sneak and wait to see who wins.

A three-strike with a club ought to do it for regular ones, no skill needed. Torches also count as clubs but you will run through them quickly if you use them as weapons. The third hit does twice as much damage. Hide behind a tree for archers so they have to walk up and get into melee range.

Pulling mobs is always a good idea. Mobs do not deliberately camp corpses as many people claim. They just return to their area, and if that's where you died, it will be harder for you later. Never rush in.

You need an upgraded wooden club, always have the best shield you can get and always prioritise upgrading it, goes for any biome. Learn the animations and sounds, slow down stop running everywhere, try a different part of the black forest than the one you are running into, its likely its stone tower or a crypt entrance thats spawning them.

Remember you can sneak

Parry and attack. Parry would reduce the damage you take to near 0, and leave the enemy open to being killed in 1-3 hits depending on the mob and star rating.

Yea, shield parry is the best way to deal with them, they get staggered and then even spear does decent damage.

If you are fighting in crypts/dense forest its easy to hit multiple things (like skelton and walls/trees) which reduces your damage significantly. It does work in opposite direction too btw.

Try to pick where you start switning back. Beside that, you have to allow your opponent to attack too. Let them swing and miss. get 1 or two hits in then move back so they miss next swing, keep moving.

Dont jump or sprint all the time, stamina is your lifeblood.

When you get to it Stagbraker (made from deer thropies) is very effective vs them.

A blunt weapon is your friend.

You don't need more skill level for your character, for sure. I just started playing recently myself and was beating up the skeletons with a lower club skill than what you have as well as less hit points.
Which may be why you are having trouble. Food either favors hit points or stamina (or a balance), and it sounds like you are eating to front load your hit points, which means your stamina is probably horrible. You should try actually eating at least one more food that gives stamina instead of health.

Really, all you need to do is dodge or block at the right time to avoid the damage. They die very quickly when you hit them with the club. But you need enough stamina to actually be able to hit them.

What skill in fighting should I be?

Weapon skills hardly matter for anything other than bow (since bows also get faster draw speed, making them far more efficient as they level). You can easily slaughter a hundred skeletons with level 1 weapon and shield skills.

Originally posted by General_Strom:

What skill in fighting should I be?

below 30 is pretty weak. you can see it on your stuff, the club will say something like (1-2) 10 where (1-2 ) is what you do because of your low skill and 10 is what it would do at max skill. Late game i don't like my weapon skills below 50, and most are 70ish for the stuff I use.

Having the appropriate type of gear matters far more than skills. Upgraded wooden club with wooden shield and good food for your level of progress makes short work of skeletors. As soon as you have enough surtling cores to set up smelter and kiln, you should focus on gathering copper and tin for bronze.

Originally posted by jonnin:

below 30 is pretty weak.

I think you're not remembering the early game very well, which is when a player first goes into the black forest. I didn't have a single weapon skill up to even 20 before going in, much less 30. I think my club skill was at like... 9, when I fought my first skeleton. It still wasn't a tough fight. Just had to make sure to dodge and block as needed.

maybe. I took a long, long time in each biome the first time around, so could be that as well.