I start with necromancer, and will only recruit necromancers until the very end.

The only real obstacle i came around was - the trapped chest. Every chest in the game that is. Necromancer cannot be even expert in trap disarming so...

What are the means to loot chests as a Necromancer only party?

I thought of vampiric weapons - like, loot a chest, then go kill some monsters to replenish the health but it is very random (one character can take all hits while others will miss) and its not very efficient (without a bess they miss alot, and if theyre hit its just 10 steps in the wrong direction). Souldrinker is still far away.

Of course resting is a way to do it, but this looks almost like cheating (indeed resting near every chest... well, then you can just skip the disarm trap skill overall!)

So whats your thoughts?

Secondly, how exacty does the trap damage the party?

From what i've seen the traps are making the more damage the less hitpoints i have! I have had two chests in same dungeon (smuggler cave). First chest will take up to 1/3 of my main character hp. But if i open it and open another one afterwards i'm dead. After i loose 1/3 of hp i cannot prevent myself from dying even by reload! I've seen knights go unconsious just because they had ~75% hp left, and it seems that if the person is 100% hp it will NEVER become unconsious or die after the trap triggers.