Player Damage and Death:
As terrifying as this prospect is supposed to be: your character (the Leader) and your cohort are pretty tough. That being said - if both your leader and cohort are eliminated - you, the player, are out of the game.
How are leaders hurt? Whenever you suffer losses in combat; there is a chance that your leader-type may sustain an injury. Should you be on the attack, and suffer greater than 50% losses, or you lose the fight (your unit's morale fails and they run), then you have a % chance of sustaining an injury.
% chance =
1) In the first scenario (50%+ losses) - your chance is equal to the % of losses sustained.
2) In the second scenario - if you are on the offense, you have a 75% chance of sustaining damage - 10% for each unit that does not run at the end of the fight.
3) If the second scenario - if you are on the defense, in your own lair; you automatically sustain damage and are forced to flee to another lair.
If you have nowhere to flee, then you are automatically killed.
All groups that are fighting outside of their own lairs are considered to be 'on the offense.' So if two players encounter each other and fight outside of their respective lairs - they are both 'on the offense.'
Damage:
Each Leader (both the Leader and Cohort) can sustain damage twice. (2 HP.)
If a Leader has damage, their bonus is reduced by half (25% bonus for actions -> 12.5%)
If a leader takes two damage, they are dead.
In order to heal - a leader must announce that they are spending two weeks in their lairs - and do absolutely nothing. During this time they provide no bonuses, and cannot use spells or skills.