I had to restart last night because I dropped something on the ground somewhere (because I couldn't sell it, I always try to have a very clean inventory), but it happened to be essential to advance a quest which happens to be a main quest which mean I couldn't finish the first area. I tried to go around it but didn't find a way, so I restarted.
That's another design choice I'm unhappy with. But it's not just quest items.
When you start the game and play a bit, that inventory they made feels spectacular.
Compared to EA's ME bullshit inventory or Bethesda's this-needs-to-be-heavily-modded inventory, Larian made we-know-what-you-want-and-here-it-is.
But then the general game design messed it.
You lead two main heroes and max two sidekicks. Each character has their own separate inventory which is indeed okay. But when I open someone's inventory with "I", why can't I change to another NPC's inventory by clicking just on character portrait? No, there are separate "arrows" on inventory screen and their usage is mandatory.
Keys? Why my hero can't unlock some door if a coresponding key is in another hero's inventory? Same goes to quest items, for example my hero can't talk about dead man's will to his wife unless it's in his inventory. Last but not least, it applies to gold too. My hero can't pay for a whore because he can't automatically take gold from another party member, instead I have to micromanage it.
I believe this could have been avoided in many ways. For example by keeping keys, quest items and gold outside of inventory - inside the journal.
Folded cloth displayed in inventory with "?" is a bug. Also I remember stealing "apprentice brainwash II" book in the second town but later spotted it's not in my inventory, perhaps another bug or I don't remember it correctly.
Perhaps I'm writing too much now, I should leave it for "finished" thread. But, as I've said, it's surprising betatesters didn't tell Larian these things can (and should) be improved.
There was only three encounters I decided to reload, because I knew it was the wrong strategy, not because everyone was dead. It wasn't even a question of difficulty of the counter, I finished those fights without that much health lost once I applied a proper strategy.
Wait till you meet some bosses.
I'm playing on normal and some I had to reload more than once because my whole party was gone. For Evelynn after a few reloads I gave up trying (didn't want to lower the difficulty on easy) and went back exploring more, getting more XP and buying some better skills/spells - she was a piece of cake later, obviously I was trying to deal with her too early. King Braccus is another nightmare fight, he's immune to almost everything, I've probably reloaded 10 times on him till I finally won without anyone dead.