There is only so much you can do with a wood shield verse the attacks, some are pretty stinging even with the blocking.

i actually learned the trick in reply #1 on my own about 2 hours ago and have successfully bullied my way past two evil bone piles in this burial chamber and their spawns, in one room. the skeleton archer is a lot more of a problem in such confined spaces, even at closer range you'd be lucky to pull off two hits before the archer attacks again. without the shield it can easily take out half your health if you ate three items just before. it's unfortunate i was so far from home where i found this chamber because my flint axe was done for and it would take an age to get back to repair

I'm gonna have to build a raft at this point to cut down the travel time, it's taking 20 minutes getting across and another death means i'll be wasting 40 minutes on walking and another 20 on returning.

i hope the raft can cut that time down to a few minutes each way instead. but that'll have to wait another time.