Head back through the canyon and finish off any areas or quests in the beginning section of Broken Valley. I got a quest to save the pigs from the farmer in the village. If you talk to Richard in town first, you may have an option to do the quest in a different way (if you turn down the 'feast or famine' quest, then at the farm you can either side with Richard or the New Order guards). Even if you take the side of the New Order, it may help if you switch to a bow, and let the soldiers handle the melee part of the fight (assuming they last very long; don't recall what level they were).
Have you talked to everyone in town? At the start, for example, Louis (main room in the guard tower) doesn't have much to say to you, but offers you a quest after you've done some other stuff (you can mindread a prisoner to get the required information, but solving the quest that way just eliminates experience and loot from doing it the proposed way).
There is no rush to get to Lovis' tower, despite Talana's nagging.
At level 7 I was able to use a bow to take out the level 8 skeletons at the main (locked) gate of the tower (switching to melee when they got close), with several strategic retreats to heal behind the large tree down hill. As long as you get one or two of them each attack, the next approach will be easier. After that I continued south east to clear the level 6/7 goblins, and the first couple level 9 bandits.
The bandits were too tough in large groups, so I went west of the place you meet the dragon knight, and up the northern path through the mountains (and level 6/7 goblins). Farther west I cleared partly towards the passage to Maxos temple (at level 8 or 9 I could take out the level 11 black ring members one or two at a time), then decided to leave that area and clear out the derelict tunnel (the two goblin entrances already cleared above ground). After that I finished off the skeletons around Lovis's tower. I kept exploring, though, and did a fair bit before actually entering the tower.
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