It'd be really nice to be able to look at your skill tree. citadel and the shops. Sitting around doing nothing while dead is no fun for anyone. Giving players the option to have at least have 20 seconds or so to plan their next move (players that haven't played so much they know their next 15 moves in advance, anyways) while dead would be a welcome addition to the game, particularly for newer players. It isn't as if being out of the fight, losing all the experience and gold that entails etc isn't punishment enough.
I want to add that I don't feel the death penalties are in any way unreasonable, just that it'd be nice to have more to do while dead. Overall though, the game is coming along quite nicely 
