I had the same issue early on. I just wandered around outside of dungeons until I had enough bones to make a bone tower shield. That and top level leather armor and a torch for a weapon made handling even 2 star skeles fairly easy if you can time the right click to block (timing is even more important with a parry shield). When you get a horde of them you can back away around a corner and they'll bunch up when they come after you. You can hit 3 or even 4 of them at a time when they bunch up even without a stag breaker.

Also make sure you are dungeoning during the day. It appears that the night time spawn rate also happens at night time inside a dungeon.

Edit - top level food available and rested bonus are also important for early dungeoning. You should be able to come up with a couple of fish. Cooked fish, cooked deer meat, and honey should allow you to survive with a shield and a rested bonus especially with the first forsaken power to reduce stamina drain.