Dying in a combat contest is actually pretty easy. See, once you lose the contest you are down and out, and your enemies can off you at their leisure since you are in no position to fight back. (Personally, i feel that it is better story-wise for PCs to be taken captive by ogres as sacrifices to Cacodemon than slain at once.)
Furthermore, healing magic isn't as ubiquitous as in RQ which means that those small wounds you get in HW combats actually hurt more and longer than life-threatening ones in RQ combats.
Also, included in the draft is a grittier version of the consequences chart for those who like more lethality and gratuitous maiming in their games.
And if you don't like the standard power level, then drop it to a suitable level. If you don't like your PCs to start at 6/14 then by all means change it to 10/10 or 14/6 or whatever suits your fancy.
If you want to have trollkin able to topple heroes, you can have it. There's nothing in the draft-rules that forbids such a playing style.
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