The Avatar will be gone for good. Dead means dead on the world of Atriana. There are no mystical forces that will bring an Avatar back to life. Therefore, actions and decisions a character makes should not be hasty. That being said, Avatars will be relatively difficult to kill.
Avatars are both smart and resilient.
There will always be alternatives available to the player. Since Atriarch is a strategy game as well, a Player's prowess will be much more valuable than an Avatar's strength. Aspects such as location, positioning, choice of weapons, timing, etc. In other words, the decisions made by the player will be as important as the Avatar's skills and strengths. My goal with Atriarch is to keep it from becoming an arbitrary game of the highest stat wins.