You can get from top to bottom with just one poison cloud touched. First use jump to avoid the first cloud, then run through a cloud to climb down, climb down again, run a bit, then jump again to get to the bottom. With one short rest you are full hp again. But I concur, it's an annoying parcour.
I never cheese fights or start them other than from dialog, so killing Ethel up in the house is not possible for me. Resting before the last fight is not cheesing for me, I even did it before my very first fight against Ethel (I lost nevertheless) because I expected a harsh encounter, however not that copy stress.
