Can't get out of Fort Joy - What am I doing wrong?

I've recently begun playing Divinity: Original Sin 2, and after six hours of playtime, I am completely stuck in Fort Joy.

I feel like, wherever I go, I get to a combat encounter, where the enemy just completely wipes the floor with me. I'm kind of out-of-ressources as well, with almost no gold (and no way I found to get anything), no notable equipment aside from the Gloves of Teleportation, which I don't know how to use effectively, no healing potions, no resurrection scrolls, etc...

In short, I feel like I completeley screwed up. What did I do wrong? Am I missing something fundamental? Or is the game supposed to be trial-and-error, where I am expected to replay the first few hours over and over, just trying random things until I get lucky?

• There are multiple ways to escape Fort Joy:

• The straightforward way is to kill the 4 magisters at the gate, pick up the key, make your way inside the fort, then you can fight your way out. If you choose to go north once inside the gates, you can meet a paladin near the port who is also fighting magisters. You will find yourself at the beach, on the other side of the coast.

• Get into the prison by either letting yourself get caught by removing your collar and being seen by a magister (The Arena of Fort Joy), or through the ancient tunnel (learn the location by completing The Imprisoned Elf), or through the quest Withermoore's Soul Jar (not needed to find the tunnel).

• You can also use the Gloves of Teleportation acquired from the quest The Teleporter to teleport one of your party members to the second level of Fort Joy (south of the gate guarded by 4 magisters). Push the ladder down and sneak into the fort. You can then make your way to a lower floor to the prison. There you can find an enemy called Kniles the Flenser. Kill him and use the key on his body to open the gate to the sewer. You can escape Fort Joy through this sewer. Alternatively, you can give Atusa's Leg to Kniles if you have it on your person when speaking to him. He will ignore you after that, avoiding the battle. The way forward through the pipe is open afterwords.

• You can also teleport down next to where you first found Fane. There on the beach (underneath the treasure chest which you can teleport to yourself) is an entrance into the Dungeon level of Fort Joy.

• If you're having trouble with Kniles, and you are inside the prison, you can climb up the stairs that take you to the ground floor of the fort. Note: in the large adjacent room, there are High Judge Orivand and 4 magisters performing a ritual on a sourcerer. You can sneak along the side of the upper floor and reach the broken wall in the back, from where you can climb a ladder down to freedom. You can also fight the magisters but they may prove a challenge.

• Close to Flenser's Playground in the prison, you can also find two magisters threatening a kid, defeat them so you can escape with a boat. You can either fight those magisters, or if you have saved Delorus, you can avoid fighting them. Say Madam Zoor sent you but do not mention Delorus.

Source from the D2 wiki