The Magic Pockets, personally does not bug me as the party would be talking through things and would hand over an item if needed.
The Permadeath and my decision to use scrolls is a concession to the game. The scrolls make you pay attention and by not using the "God of Death" revive at your camp not paying attention can mean the lose of a character. I think the game is a bit unforgiving in some ways with death. I have seen the AI often of out of it's way to double attack a downed partied member despite them being out of the fight. I personally think they would ignore him as they have active targets.
That being said this was just my concession, Permadeath is a very viable play rule for this kind of challenge.
