Or maybe you can choose wether to participate or not in battle.
If staying alive is too dificult, perhaps he could get only knocked out, albeit leaving a morale penalty to the entire party for that battle.
It would be cool to have the option to have your own avatar.
But then again, it could be an option to join the battle or not.
As Alesch said, there could be management skills alongside combat and tactical skills.
I’m sure it would improve the game, without changing it too much.
