However, CF is a really complex game. I do believe that without cheating or special collusion, there are nearly always methods of bringing down even the most super-cautious character. Not to say that Zwerg is one such, but he is fairly careful as most players go, and effective. By some twist of fate I logged in having quit in a zone commonly visited by hero range warriors and found him right there doing what I was doing before I logged out. So he got bashed down with only about a 10 second window to see if someone was coming at him.

I will have to list examples of fights one should get out of, even if one believes in taking chances:
Decked sword spec basher comes at you fully prepped. ie. Hunsobo/Igbah/(lesser extent)Humbert coming at you, you're easily bashed and unprepped. You should just teleport.
ABS Scion mage with 1500 hp. Chrichuk comes at your ordinary character.
ABS phylactery'd Lich comes at your ordinary character.
Decked elf paladin 2 hander with Defiance comes at your unprepped duergar warrior.

Here are some examples of fight where one may 'take risks' if one is that sort of person:
Sword warrior, your flurry (if it hits 6 times) will kill him and give you a kill. It will however kill you if it hits 5 or less times. Similar to drum, legacy warcry, aristaea, etc.

Instead why not fight smart? Wait till that tough shifter is out of form somewhere and beat the crap out of him? Wait till that tough shaman is not prepped, then two-man permalag him? This would be 'playing to win'. It would then be the staff's job to try to balance the game so that weaker combos are not overly disadvantaged by this. The ideal scenario is that the game has rules and every player plays the hardest to win, and the game's rules make it such that the competition is viable, and fun. I think CF is like that, excepting the truly elite players like Nep etc playing power combos.

In the above example, a 50 damroll warrior with dual mithril maces vs Shaman fully prepped will take about 10 rounds of straight melee to kill Shaman. If you're hit with rot (start rotting), blind, plague, famish, poison, and then Shaman words out. Shaman wins, you lose. Or worse, rot, word, Shaman wins. ETC.

Conversely, imagine same Shaman vs decked divine saves elf villager berserker STSF exotic weapons in a bloodthirst at the village. The Shaman would be absolutely silly to risk two supps and get battered to death.