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Both Lini and Seelah have an easy way to add a Bonus-die to every Check they do, so they can deal with Checks on their weaker Skills a lot better than the other Characters.
Plus both have access to Healing-Magic.

On the downside Lini is average in Combat and her reliance on Spells will make this even whorse, while Seelah has a really unfavorable Starting Deck and Hand.

If you are willing to invest the Time I suggest you try a few Characters that look interesting to you and then play your favorites as a team in following adventures.

The lack of depth and shadows has me leaning towards computer-generated, which would also explain the somewhat off colors.

Meatal-Minis of most Iconics exist (as well some as unpainted plastic), if you dont dislike Reaperminis. just this week they added the Warpriest, Swashbuckler, Bloodrager, Investigator and Arcanist.

I did a short game of "Aproach to Thistletop", the Scenario after gaining your first Power-Feat, using two Copies each of Augury and Detect Magic.

To get a Copy of both on my Hand took me 6 Rounds, in which i closed the first Location.
Closing the second Location took me 11 Augury/Detect Cycles with the first three Cycles each removed a Boon.
The third Location had the Villain on top, so now new insight from there. I just spend another 10 Turns to get a second Damage-spell back from my Discard-Pile.

For the Risks of the Cycle you start with a 20% Failure- Chance to recharge Augury, even with both Skill-Feats in Intelligence which will stay around until Adventure-Deck 2 (in RotR). My exeptionally bad Dice-Luck made sure I had to use both Toads to keep the Cycle running.
I don't see any Cards breaking the Cycle, since you only interact with Cards of the Deck you want to.

My Problems with this are:
First you start with precious little Spells left to deal with Villains/ Henchmen so you better have someone to take care of that.
Second I wanted to know how many cycles it would take to bring the Villain/ Henchman to Top. So I made a simple Ten-Cards Deck and simulated using Augury over and over to search for Monsters. After almost 20 times shuffeling, with seeing the same 8 Cards I decided I could finish a Location faster by regular means.
Maybe I run a few more abstract Tests to see how long it takes on average.

While a single abstract and ingame Test make for poor Information, I got the feeling that this Cycle works reasonable well but is timewise really unreliable and will probably be really boring even to the Player who tries it.

If I would have to make a Change to Radillos Power, I would probably add the Card to the Players Hand before he resets it instead of directly after he checked it.

In my experience combat is the the easy part of the game (especially in bigger parties), so its hard to answer your Question.

At least for me a lot of the difficulty comes from the precombat damage, closing conditions for locations and certain Barriers mostly the Horde ones.

For the specialisation in the primary Skills again bigger parties are making this stategy viable since your characters cover the different Skills already. I expect that to change in S&S when drowning becomes a real possibility.

This is a bit different for me. My first try ended in a total team-whipe, but after sleeping over it I realized, I made enough rule-errors to fill a book about how not to play Pacg. So I decided to give Karzoug a fair Chance to beat me and rerun the Adventure, with much better results.
If you consider this Cheating feel free to ignore anything I write here.

And always remember: don't play games at 2 am or you make all the stupid errors you can.

Character Name: Harsk
Role Card: Tracker
Skill Feats: Dexterity +4, Wisdom +2
Power Feats: +1 hand size, 1d4+2 to Combat Chacks at other Locations, 1d8+1 against Giants, Divine: Wisdom +1, Blessings give d12 to Wisdom
Card Feats: Spell +2, Item +1, Ally +3, Blessing +1
Weapons: Acidic Sling +3, Returning Frost Spear +2 2x, Shock Longbow +1, Venomous Heavy Crossbow +2
Spells: Aid, Cure
Armors: Bolstering Armor
Items: Belt of Physical Might, Headband of inspired Wisdom, Revelation Quill, Ring of Energy Resistance
Allies: Black Arrow Ranger, Elven Sharpshooter, Merchant, Troubadour
Blessings: Calistria, Gozreh, Erastil, Shelyn 2x, Torag

Character Name: Seelah
Role Card: Crusader
Skill Feats: Strength +3, Wisdom +3
Power Feats: +1 hand size, 1d6+3 to Checks and recharge Spells, Shuffle Blessings of Iomedae back into Deck
Card Feats: Weapon +1, Spell +2, Ally +2, Blessing +2
Weapons: Flaming Ranseur +3, Impaler of Thorns, Mokmurians Club, Shock Greatsword +2
Spells: Aid, Cure, Flaming Weapon
Armors: Adamantine Armor, Invincible Breastplate 2x
Items: -
Allies: Grizzled Mercenary, Saber-Toothed Tiger, Shaman, Zuvuzeg
Blessings: Gorum 2x, Iomedae 2x, Lamashtu, Nethys 2x, Norgorber

Character Name: Seoni
Role Card: Abyssal Sorcerer
Skill Feats: Wisdom +2, Charisma +4
Power Feats: +1d6+3 Fireblast, auto Recharge Arcane Items, reduce fire, acid, cold Damage by 1, Pharasma adds d12
Card Feats: Spell +2, Item +2, Ally +1, Blessing +2
Weapons: -
Spells: Disintegrate, Frost Ray, Lightning Bolt, Poison Blast, Scorching Ray
Armors: -
Items: Magic Spyglass, Ordikon's Staff, Ring of Protection, Robes of Xin-Shalast, Wand of Enervation
Allies: Father Zantus, Lizard, Pyromaniac Mage, Vale Temros, Standard Bearer
Blessings: Calistria, Irori, Norgorber, Pharasma 4x

Character Name: Merisiel
Role Card: Thief
Skill Feats: Dexterity +4, Constitution +1, Wisdom +1
Power Feats: 1d6+3 to combat checks when alone, +2 to checks to close Locations, +3 to aquire Armor, Item or Weapon
Card Feats: Weapon +2, Item +3, Blessing +2
Weapons: Force Sling +3, Venomous Dagger +2 2x, Venomous Heavy Crossbow +2
Spells: -
Armors: Reflecting Shield
Items: Belt of Incredible Dexterity 2x, Belt of physical Might, Headband of inspired Wisdom, Holy Candle, Ring of Protection, Spyglass 2x, Staff of Minor Healing
Allies: Black Arrow Ranger 2x
Blessings: Abadar, Erastil 3x, Lamashtu, Shelyn

Character Name: Lini
Role Card: Wild Warden
Skill Feats: Strength +1, Dexterity +1, Wisdom +4
Power Feats: +2 hand size, Weapon Profiency, reveal Animal for 1d4+3 to checks, +2 to checks when playing Spells
Card Feats: Weapon +1, Spell +1, Item +2, Ally +2, Blessing +1
Weapons: Fanged Falchion
Spells: Holy Light 2x, Mass Cure 2x, Raise Dead, Swipe 2x
Armors: -
Items: Emerald Codex, Magic Spyglass, Sihedron RIng, Staff of minor Healing
Allies: Bear, Eagle, Giant Badger, Monkey, Toad
Blessings: Gorum 2x, Lamashtu, Shelyn 2x

Character Name: Ezren
Role Card: Evoker
Skill Feats: Intelligence +4, Wisdom +2
Power Feats: +1 hand size, +2 to recharge a Card, +2 to Arcane checks with Arcane, Acid/Cold, Electricity/Fire, +2 to aquire Spells
Card Feats: Spell +3, Item +2, Ally +2
Weapons: Karzoug's Burning Glaive
Spells: Augury, Disintegrate, Dominate, Frost Ray, Haste 2x, Incendiary Cloud, Lightning Bolt, Poison Blast, Scorching Ray, Scrying
Armors: -
Items: Robe of Runes, Sihedron Ring, Sihedron Tome, Spyglass, Staff of Hungry Shadows
Allies: Cat, Clockwork Librarian, Pyromaniac Mage, Shalelu Andosana, Toad
Blessings: -

No one died the second try but Harsk and Ezren would have died if I had failed to defeat Karzoug.

As a sidenote: Playing with 6 Characters gives a huge increase in your chance to grab the really good Boons. I feel even greater than your increased need for good Boons. Plus it is easier to get a choice from the Box for your Card Feats.

Since the Witch is my second-favorite Class in Pathfinder, only beaten by the Paladin, Feiya will be a definite part of the new Team. The rest of my solo-tean will probably change when I see the Character-cards. Especially since the example deck in the rulebook implies that, unlike in the rpg, the witch doesn't have access to divine magic.

I contemplated building a team based on my collected rpg-Chars but that would include 3 Characters not included in Skulls and Shackles.
That Team would be:

Paladin
Witch
Bard
Ranger
Magus
Sorcerer

where the Ranger could probably be replaced with the Swashbuckler.

Oh well maybe for a later playthrough, perhaps even with the aid of Character-Decks.

Living in a Country where Credit Cards are not all that whidespread I can't even get to the point where I see the shipping costs.
Then again I know from multiple experiences that shipping from the US to Germany is not exactly the cheapest.
Plus the 20% Suscripion bonus are instantly eaten up by taxes and customs, leaving me with a price similar to local sources (unfortunatly no hobbystores in a reasonable range) plus transatlantic shipping.

So yes, Suscription might not be the best option for everyone. And no I wouldn't even think about selling Promos to make a quick buck.

After rereading the rulebook I would say the basic only restriction stays lifted, but you are still limited to Cards with decknumbers 2 lower than the adventure you just played. This gives you still access to some really usefull stuff without giving higher rewards for lower risks.
At least thats how I understand the phrase "whose adventure deck number is at least 2 lower than the adventure you are currently Playing"
But again, since english isn't my first language so I might mix up something by applying german language rules.

There is no Errata to the Shock Longbow so 1d4 seems the correct number.
Plus it is the only Longbow so far that says dex/ranged + 1d8 instead of dex/ranged + unmodified strength so it might be part of the Shock Longbow just being a little bit different from the rest.

Your deck must contain exactly the number of cards listed on the back of the Character Card, choosen freely from the Cards you finished the last scenario with.

So you can use the aquired cards but have to give up cards you owned before.

I Don't feel its a big problem, since you still need room for cards during deck rebuilding to take Cards from the box and chances to banish cards from your deck or gain card feats are not that common.

I guess you could play targeted to reduce your cardstock for free Picks in the end but I'm not sure if it is worth the efford.

As someone who rarely play more than one blessing on a check (i just don't have enough in my 6 Character Soloplay), I don't feel my characters take a concerning amount of damage. I do take some extra hits on average Combat rolls, that could be prevented with extra blessings, but the groupsize absorbs them most of the time.
I still use double Daggers from time to time, but I donn't remember any other boons I double.

My main problem with armors is getting them in my Hand in time, without them taking up important space in my Deck or hand.
For armors I actually prefer aditional abilities over higher damage reduction, wich are a lot more common in later sets.
Still my playstyle and group didn't gave me the need to increase my number of armors so far. And with only 2 sets left to play I am somewhat sceptical this will change.

Having read parts of the rpg-Version of Rise of the Runelords (I don't own a copy so I have to read those of other people) I got the following Impression:

Knowing the Adventure will give you a better understanding for some design descisions or why some cards where made.
(for example why attack on Sandpoint has the Blessings Deck reduced to 25 or where the two charmed red Dragons come from)
While this is not important to enjoy the game I appreciate this extra Layer of care that went in the design-process.

On the other hand knowing the Card game before the Adventure will show you the Direction the Adventure will take, but certain connections just can't be made in the limited Frame of the cardgame. So there will be still Surprises but not as much as going in blind.

For replayability, I see it like many others: maybe you won't replay RotR, but you have a box full of Cards and a community to run an almost endless amount of different Advenures and Campaigns.
With the core classes I see certain patterns emerge at the midpoint, so variation seems to be more about team-composition then individual characters, but this might change after the final chapter when more informed experimenting is possible.

At the moment I don't do a lot of replays, since taking apart and reconstructing 6 Characters is quite a piece of work. I guess this might change too after the final chapter, when we don't have to reconstruct a team one month later for the next box.
Personaly I plan at least one more solo run as soon as I can play with a Witch. (which made the impressive jump to my second-favorite Class as soon as I saw the Rules)

Finally I want to adress a complaint I heard from some reviewers that this isn't a product for roleplayers.
First, my 20 something years of playing and mastering various rpgs disagree.
Second, this is not an rpg. It is more like a light game one can play on a less organized base, more like a "regular" board game.

Added since you gave a new Question, while I was typing.

I still don't know how long I play on average. I tried to record the duration multiple times but forgot half way through the game.
The Box says around 90 minutes and i feel for pure gametime that might be a good number.
My shortest succesfull game was probably under 1 hour with only a little over 10 rounds, while my longest game went somwhere in the direction of 2 hours (both with 6 Characters). Playing first time with my group, and explaining all the rules, took an entire evening with preperations and wrap up, but this time will shorten with more sessions played
I feel, that a lot of time goes into setup and rebuilding characters after the adventure, which can be reduced with a little bit of preperation.

Truth be told in the six character group I gave her a fourth weapon. (I have paused playing her solo)
This way she is more reliable against the later Henchmen/Villains. That way Merisiel don't have to kill them all by herself.

Plus after Stonegiants Seelah would be maxed out on blessings and spells so you can plan wich extras you want for the last two adventure decks.

Having just opened Fortress of the Stonegiants I would say the Eagle. At first glance it is a card with limited Scouting-ability that can't cycle itself:

Then, not five minutes later, I realized, that this might be the optimal Ally for Lini. since it get put on the top of your deck you could use it after explorations and draw it back at the end of the turn to keep an Animal-Ally available.
Since I havn't played yet so it could still disapoint but at least I will give it a chance.

Since this will end in quite a wall of text I start with a disclaimer: English isn't my first language. I learned a lot of my English from reading rulebooks and watching Series/Movies in their original language. So there might be a few strange to wrong sentences.

Having finished Hook Mountain this weekend, I feel I am ready to make my comment on difficulty.
First of all I find all the Ideas at least interesting and used some of them in slightly different form. So while I might be overly critical I am still Fascinated and Interested in the ways you all improve your enjoyment of the game.

Hook Mountain was a lot easier, than I have expected beforehand. Fighting 20+ Difficulty bosses seemed a lot more difficult beforehand.
If someone is interested here is my complete winningteam.
I will only talk here about my Characters if needed.

Personally i don't feel increasing the difficulty is as easy as changing Blessings or the position of the Henchmen/villains.
Mostly because the Characters are way to different, to be impacted in the same way by Changes.

I will start with two current examples from my recent games:

Place Villains and Henchmen on Bottom
Here I have to admit, that I play a scout-hravy party. But during "Angel in the Tower" 7 out of 8 Henchmen/Villain where in the bottom Half of their deck. (something that probably happend a lot more during the whole AP) I was still able to finish the Scenario in below 20 Turns and 3 permanently closed Locations.
Having 2 Characters with natural Scout-Ability and Hastes for repositioning between Turns for temporary closings speeds up most Scenarios.
Being limited to more conventional exploration-methods may make this option more efficient.

blessings give only d4 (to other Characters)
First of all I have one big Problem with limiting the usefulness of blessings played for other Players: The Rule hits Ezren a lot harder, than the rest, since he can't have any Blessings unless he encounters them. He isn't exacly big on Allies either, so this will make him a clearly worse Character.
Other boons are rarely added more than once in my Games (except armors and Shields or Daggers) so I think limiting them will not make as big of an impact as limiting Blessings.

For general weaker Blessings:
Having only an average of 4 Blessings per Character (4.5 at the end of hmm) doesn't give me a lot of Blessings for better Checks. Then again during hmm I used only one or two Blessings against Villains. And i fought Mammy Graul 3 times and Barl Breakbones 2 times.
Most of my blessings are needed for Exploration, Seoni turns a few every Game into Fireballs and Seelah prefers to have a few remaining in her deck, so I think twice if I really need a Blessing for a Check or take the risk of rolling. And while it happened before I can't remember when I used more than one Blessing on a Check before.
Again I expect that my scout heavy party shifts the difficulty somewhat here, since i can often bring the right Character in the right location.

Replace some Cards in the Blessing Deck with Monsters/ Characters traveling more than one Location may encounter a random Monster
I feel Caster classes will be more hamperd by this than fighter Classes, since they actually have to spend handcards. Maybe choosing randomly between a monster and a barrier would be better.

each Character Banishes a Random card for each not permanently closed Location
I admit there should be some penality for failing a Scenario but I have a personal aversion against randomly destroying several hours of work.
I played with a variant of this rule, which is admittatly a lot tamer, that I will talk about after all my comments.

all Characters start at the same Location
I actually tried something Similar before registering to the Forum. And it feels like a really big influence on the Game. Again I will explain my Variant below.

If you take Damage without cards in your Hand bury the topcard of your deck
I really like this Rule, even if I don't like to bury Cards.
While I rarely explore without cards in my hand, there a a few encounters which can empty your hand before a Check if you are unlucky.

and now for the Experiments I did so far
Most of what I've tried so far hasn't been tested during the offical Adventures so there might be problems I am not aware of. So your own results will probably vary.

During the time until hmm reached my neck of the wolrd I experimented with my own Scenario and changing little things in the Gameplay. (If there is Interest i can Post my notes so far for your entertainment; one Way or the other)
Which lead to some deja vues when I started with hmm.
Here are The Rules I changed during the Tests:

• Limiting Monsters
  This sounds strange at first and Maybe counterintuitive. In Essence there are by now 4 big Monstergroups: Human, Goblin, Undead and Giant. Normally I use only one or two of these big groups and add from the other Monsters for Flavor.
  While I encounterd a lot less of the bigger Monsters, which I either overkill via Blessings or most of their Damage is wasted, I encounter a lot more Monsters like Enchanters/Scouts/Traitors, Goblin Pyros/Commandos/Warchanters or incorporeal Undead which can deal damage without a Check or are generally annoying.
  This didn't exactly increased the difficulty, but made it a little more even over multiple games.
  (This is also the only rulechange I use in most regular Games as well)
  
• Location Placement and Movement
  all Locations are placed in a somewhat logical pattern,as determined by the players or, in my Scenarios, by me.
  All Players start at the same Location determined the same way.
  Whenever a Character moves he can only move to an the next open Location in the pattern or any closed Location in between. (Teleport might ignore this point.)
  This makes at the beginning/end of Turn and entering/exiting rules a bit more relevant.
  Plus encountering the Villain early can be more problematic, if you are not in a position to temporarily close Locations.
  
• running out of the blessings Deck
  When you run out of time during your next atempt replace a random Boon with a random Monster in every not permanent closed Location. This stacks if you fail the same Scenario multiple Times. If a Character died during this atempt you can't use his/her Cards during Deck rebuild.
  This is obviously a lot tamer than its Inspiration. For me it represents the Villain bringing his lackys in position, destroying assets and hunting away possible Allies.
  
• limiting the Henchmen
  Now this is a strange point at first look.
  The story behind this is during one Scenario I replaced one Henchmen per two Characters with a Guard Ally, since the Cityguard is hunting the Villain too. This leads to up to three Locations wich can't be closed, before all Cards are dealt with and are essentially red Herrings. Of course there are official Scenarios where this Rule is somewhat against the core of the Scenario.
  

Character Name: Harsk
Role Card: Tracker
Skill Feats: Dexterity +2, Wisdom +2
Power Feats: +1 hand size, 1d4+2 to Combat Check at another Location, +1d8 on Checks against Giants
Card Feats: Ally +2, Blessing +1
Weapons: Schock Longbow +1, Frost Longbow +1, Longbow +1, Light Crossbow +1, Light Crossbow
Armors: Elven Chain Shirt
Items: Belt of incredible Dexterity, Spyglass, Masterwork Tools
Allies: Black Arrow Ranger 2x, Saber-Toothed Tiger
Blessings: Erastil 3x, Gorum, Shelyn, Torag

Character Name: Seelah
Role Card: Crusader
Skill Feats: Strength +3, Wisdom+ 1
Power Feats: +1 hand size, Spell Recharge, 1d6+2 to Checks
Card Feats: Weapon +1, Spell +1, Blessing +1
Weapons: Longsword +2 2x, Bastard Sword +1, Impaler of Thorns
Spells: Cure, Detect Evil
Armors: Elven Breastplate 2x, Shield of Fire Resistance
Allies: Vale Temros, Jakadros Sovark
Blessings: Imoedae, Sarenrae, Shelyn, Norgorber, Gorum, Torag, Lamashtu

Character Name: Seoni
Role Card: Abyssal Sorcerer
Skill Feats: Wisdom +2, Charisma +2
Power Feats: Arcane +d6 +2, automatic recharge Items, Reduce Fire Damage by 1
Card Feats: Spell +1, Item +1, Blessing +1
Spells: Lightning Bolt, Frost Ray, Glibness, Incendiary Cloud
Items: Headband of alluring Charisma, Wand of Scorching Ray 2x, Wand of Enervation
Allies: Father Zantus, Guide, Sage, Standard Bearer
Blessings: Pharasma 2x, Iori, Desna, Calistria, Blessing of the Gods

Character Name: Merisiel
Role Card: Thief
Skill Feats: Dexterity +2, Wisdom +1
Power Feats: Weapon Profiency, 1d6+2 Sneak Attack, +2 to Noncombat Checks closing a location
Card Feats: Weapon +1, Item +1, Blessing+1
Weapons: Venomous Dagger +2 2x, Light Crossbow
Armors: Snakeskin Tunic
Items: Codex, Eyes of the Eagle, Spyglass, Crown of Charisma, Belt of Incredible Dexterity, Ring of Protection, Staff of Minor Healing
Allies: Black Arrow Ranger, Standard Bearer
Blessings: Calistria 2x, Torag, Desna, Sarenrae

Character Name: Lini
Role Card: Wild Warden
Skill Feats: Wisdom +4
Power Feats: Weapon Profiency, reveal animal for d4+3 to Check
Card Feats: Weapon +1, Spell +1, Ally +1
Weapons: Deathbane Light Crossbow +1
Spells: Cure 2x, Major Cure, Augury, Inflict, Holy Light, Swipe
Items: Holy Candle, Staff of Minor Healing,
Allies: Crow 2x, Monkey, Toad
Blessings: Shelyn, Iori, Norgorber, Lamashtu

Character Name: Ezren
Role Card: Evoker
Skill Feats: Intelligence +3, Wisdom +1
Power Feats: +1 hand size, +2 To recharge Check, +2 to Arcane check with Force trait
Card Feats: Spell +1, Item +1, Ally +1
Weapons: Icy Longspear +1
Spells: Haste 2x, Scorching Ray 2x, Frost Ray, Lightning Bolt, Force Missle, Mirror Image, Detect Magic
Items: Headband of vast Intellect, Masterwork Tools, Spyglass, Token of Remembrance
Allies: Cat 2x, Toad, Shalelu Andosana

No one died so far (in this Group), even if the Dice tried their best.

1) How often would you expect to fail a scenario (time out the blessings deck)?
I guess 1 or 2 out of five Scenarios sounds correct for my Solo playstyle, though my numbers vary wildly and I finished many Scenarios on the last one or two Blessings. then again I try to play somewhat carefully and could improve my Numbers on the risk of my characters.

2) If you played the entire Adventure Path (packs 1-6) through ten times (just imagine!) with an average of 4 characters per playthrough (i.e. 40 characters in total), how many times would you expect to see a character die?
Going from my current experience-point I would expect somewhere between 0 and 5 deaths.
Adding my Games so far having played with 3 different groups I had 5 dead Characters until this point, so I could expect up to 18. On my one character run Seelah died three times on 'Local Heroes'. (thats the Scenario without a Villain/ Henchmen)

3) What would you do if a character died (and was not legitimately resurrected by some game effect)?
So far I went two different ways:
- If I feel i can spare the Time I play a new Character (not the same expect for solo Adventures) up to the point where the rest of the Group is. sometimes with the aid of some of the surviving Adveturers.
- They where Quite a lot of Times where a Character died by failing a Check, where only one of his 3+ Dice would have needed to roll higher than a 1 or Success.
In those cases I tend to restart the Scenario with Characters reset to before the Scenario.
- In my Current 6 Char Solo- Playthrough I plan on letting the Group shrink down to 4 Characters bevore thinking about bringing new personel in. Im quite interested, if Ezren or Seoni prove themself to be more long-living.

For my background I am probably straight from the PnP RPG-Camp. I find the competitive Streak of most Bordgames, Videogames and Tabletops increasingliy frustrating (even if i manage to keep a solid rate of wins for myself).
I master a Dnd-Group, with some longer Pauses, once a month for roughly 20 Years now and played in a few other groups with different Systems.
As a DM I believe that difficult Chalanges make a game more interesting and players should have a reason to worry about their Characters lives, but actual death should be something special.
In my current Campaign was no adventure so far, where i didn't knock a Character below zero hp. (which means he/she is probably unconcious and slowly bleeding to death)

For the Question is the difficulty to high or low?
At this point I never had the feeling to breeze through the AP (no thanks to my inability to roll at least average), but ,besides the 1 Character Games, I never came close to thinking that a Challenge might be to hard for my group. Maybe that changes with the Hook Mountain Massacre which I hadn't jet a chance to Start. Some of the Challenges in there seems to bring quite a Jump in Difficulty.
Beside that there are a lot of easy ways to influence the Dufficulty and I enjoyed experimenting with a few Ideas.

While Oroniss summarised Seelah pretty well in my opinion, the Paladin is my favorite Class since I started playing ad&d 2nd Edition 20 somewhat years ago, so I try to add some of my thoughts:

I played Seelah solo through Perils, Burnt Offerings and Skinsaw Murders and started her in a 6 Character Group with Lini, Harsk, Merisiel, Ezren and Seoni.

For Skill-Feats I went in both Cases with her strengths (Strength first then Wisdom and Strength again) and left the weakspots Dexterity and Intelligence to Allies or other Characters.

Power Feats I prefer to go with improving the bonus d6 first (spell recharge befor +1).
I don't think her limited handsize is as troublesome as for some other Characters like Sajan.

With Card Feats I feel the second Spell is a good first Choice and I feel Allies are always a good Choice for their flexibility, but I tend to make my second card choice more based on the problems that came up during the last few Scenarios.

For Stategies:
Divine Gace
Don't be afraid to use your bonus d6. 40% of your Cards will be recharged and with the Spell upgrade you can easily get half your Deck rechargeble. As soon as you have a solid hand it will cut out the ballast and turn into a 100% recharge cycle.

Detect Evil
The Bonus Scouting is really powerfull. While I don't agree to use it every Round it helps you to cut your exploration Time down quite a bit.
I tend to use it in certain Locations (Garrison/ Shrine), to get an advantage over the Blessings Deck, or when I feel confident in the Equipment of my group.
Plus since you use it at the Start (or End) of your Turn you can move away, if the Top-Card is an early unwanted Villain.
I tend to use it more in bigger Group Games than Solo Games for the simple reason that you have to make the most out of every turn in bigger Games.

Building your Deck:
I feel getting magical Armor (not necessarily Shields) is the most important thing for Seelah, even if they are only light and if you can convince the other players to give them to you. All light Armor Classes have a way to turn unwanted Handcards into something usefull, but Seelah not only need one Armor in her Starthand, her only way to get rid of unwanted extras, that clot your hand, is to take voluntary Damage. Beeing able to recharge them at the end of your round will do wonders for your limited Hand-Size.
For spells I prefer to start with a basic Detection Spell and aim to trade it in for Find Traps as soon as possible. It might give you only more of your Basic dies, but with your other possible bonusses this will add up quickly. For the second Spell i tend to start with Cure if available, until I get a feeling for the changes in difficulty.
Generally I try to keep Seelah to Divinations and leave support and combat spells to the Cleric/Bard/Druid.
For Allies I prefer the Sage and the Troubadour since they offer a d6 Bonus to Seelahs d4-Skills.

Having seen the HMM-Cards I feel Seelahs biggest weakness is going to be her inability to use Items. The number of Cards that give more permanent or reusable Bonusses startet strong and got even better with every Adventure Deck. And with Seelahs already average Skills I fear she might loose even more, if bigger Bonusses come around in the secend half. Her Divine Gace is good but can compensate only so much.

And, if you're not too scared, there is a marvelous house rule you can implement as well... after the failed scenario, each character banishes one random card from their 'pile' of cards per unclosed location.

I'm not a big Fan of this houseruling for flavor- reasons, but I had a lot of Fun with an Adaptation where I replace a Random Boon with a random Monster in every unclosed Location during the next Playthrough. And this stacks for multiple failed runs.

Plus if a Character died, you can't use his belongings during your Deck rebuild.

Then again I failed probably all Scenarios from start to the end of Adventure Deck 2 at least once, so I might be a little biased against loosing random Cards from my Characters.