If he chose, he could use that form at negligible risk.

In this particular log, he chose to start a fight whilst wounded, and also switched into lion form against a particularly tough enemy. Against many enemies, or had he caught his enemy wounded, it would be all over. As it is, there was almost no chance of dying. That whole time, he only moved from small wounds to covered in wounds, I think. It was only when he chose to swap to lion that he started taking heavy damage. Many enemies won't have that kind of damage output and will just be frozen whilst a lion tears them up.

My point isn't so much about what the character chooses to do with the form, it's more that I think questy forms need to be less "complementary" to the other forms a shifter has. I thought much the same with Padwei's unicorn form. Padwei was a cool char, but that array of forms just covered too much imho. So I wouldn't have given him a form that has a decent offense on top of it.