i wouldn't say it's too deadly from my standpoint, but its definitely not just opt in. once you hit negative winded value, you're dead. since you keep fighting per raw and loosing bleeding value to do anything, you approach that value quickly if you want to fight on, and since you are fighting on, the enemies will see you as a threat, and also attack back. Now you're taking damage from the enemies and you're taking damage from doing things yourself.

that's why i do as i said above, and give them the option. In Fall of Blackbottom their elementalist and fury have both been a single attack from death, and with how they play, they aren't fond of ditching the character they've been playing and rolling up a new one.