Another thing:- the skill drain seems to matter for very little.
Ideally you'd want to be a particular skill level to do well in the boss fights - but after dying so much, none of my skills even went beyond 50 - lucky that some went beyond 30- and I still beat all the bosses solo. Most skills hovered around 10-20.

So what is the point of the skill system really? Maybe don't punish players with massive skill drains?