Some general tips that might potentially help, although if you're familiar with the game you might know them already.

General

• Many chests (not all) can be broken open by attacking them, which might be quicker than picking the lock. However, they might end up containing different items.
• Depending on your chosen route, Freeze might be the only spell you'll need to learn (to freeze a sinkhole in the swamp). The "dangerous gas" in the Urbish Mines can be blown up by a Fireball wand, which (again, depending on your route) might be more useful than the Fireball spell.
• Using certain magic items effectively (as in, doing lots of damage to enemies), such as wands, does wonders for leveling up the Magic skill of the characters and can be used to gain mana quickly.

About Certain Items

• The lantern, should you need it, can be found both in Thug's Cave and in Draracle's Caves. It's not necessary at all for the run though it arguably does increase visibility a lot and therefore might help with navigation. At the same time, it only takes a couple of seconds to get in Draracle's Caves.
• There is no way to avoid getting the compass and the animation that goes with it. If you do not get the compass from the man in the Grey Eagle Inn where you meet Timothy, you will find it in Roland's chest in the Manor. However, you will get 200 crowns less from the chest.
• A green skull comes in very handy when fighting the Larkhon blocking the entrance to the Urbish Mines. There are two green skulls to be found, one in a tree stump in Opinwood and another in a chest in Upper Opinwood.
• Vaelan's Cube is very useful (to say the least) on the third floor of the White Tower. Normal weapons are ineffective, only emerald blades work against ghosts.

Puzzle/Encounter Solutions

Although it might seem that way, to complete the game you don't need to:

• get the diamond from the Dungeons and free Dawn from the crystal ball in Castle Cimmeria
• kill all the enemies in Dungeons; you can just visit the race you sided with in their home and attack them directly, which gives you the key to Castle Cimmeria
• free Lyle or fight Jana (or any Amazons for that matter) in the White Tower
• mine all the coal pieces to put into the machine in Urbish Mines; one is enough
• fight Scotia in Yvel Woods; this takes much more time than giving her Dawn's key which you'll find later on in a niche in Castle Cimmeria that you have to visit anyway because it contains the Humanoid figurine
• drop all your armor, weapons, medicine and jewellery into the respective corners of the room in Castle Cimmeria to obtain the Dull Key; only one piece of each is needed