Well, after spending several more hours with different party builds, I had to give up. I finally got into the goblin's cave, but went down with the first encounter.
The plan now is to give one character Daze and two points in Mage spells. That will hopefully get me to the point where the gang is able to take some punishment without collapsing. It seems to be working. By the time I join the Anama, it hopefully won't be an issue. Fingers crossed.....