I've only started playing older edition D&D lately, and despite the magic user having only one hit point, so far all of the deaths have been poor travelers duped into adventuring with the party. Also, we're not so focused on combat--it's mainly tricks that the players use to get around obstacles of monstrous sort.
A good example came from our first Rules Cyclopedia game we played a few months back. The party decided to raid the lair of the Orc King in some nearby woods. They hid among the trees, just within range of the outdoor guards of the Orcs' cave lair, and after taking down a good handful of orcs with their bows, they invented the ingenious plan of arranging the orc bodies so that they led into the forest, in hopes that they would lead any other orcs away to investigate. Also they set the bodies on fire for some reason. The plan was so ridiculous that I essentially let it work, for the most part. They made some noise and hid as a few more orcs came out. One stayed to guard the cave while the others went off into the forest to see where the bodies led. The PCs ambushed the remaining Orc before heading into the cave.
In reality, it's the ridiculous plans that I enjoy more than combat. For me, rolling dice at one another isn't what D&D is about. It's about imagining crazy things that couldn't exist or happen in the real world. It's about imagination and the fantastic.