Originally posted by stvlepore:

The skelly is one level up from the start. You can beat them with a wooden club, blunt damage, but its going to be a tough battle early on. Stay in the meadow till you get used to the game.

Two points:
1: You can actually beat a skelly man with your fists, and it's not that difficult a 1v1 fight once you've learned the mechanics. It's tedious without a stick, but not difficult.
2: Skeletons can spawn in the meadows, near those little rock hut things.