Do you have a save at the end of Fort Joy, that you can reload and check merchants for skill books, equipment upgrades and resurrection scrolls, etc?
If you lower the difficulty to Story, it will give you a resurrection spell that can be used outside of combat.
A bedroll is the easiest way to heal outside of combat (or before, for the rested status, if you are not too close to hostile characters). Otherwise there are potions (healing potions can be created with an empty potion bottle and a penny bun mushroom), healing spells (a bonus on Migo's ring, if you have that), talents like Leech or the Necromancer skill school.
