The problem is that there is no naturally occurring water that is 4/7 deep and the terrain engine doesn't do beaches. Pretty much no one should ever drown by stepping into first tile of a water square because you should be able to step right out. All ponds and lakes in this game are pits and have no sloped edges, and you are trapped if you can't swim.
I am trying to locate my last fortress where a bronze colossus killed it. I want to see if it is still there. After that, if I have the patience, I am done with adventure mode. There isn't any point to it and those missions are hard for the wrong reasons. They are hard because you can spend like 2 hours wandering around in an area and still not find 'a cave' or the boss guy. Even when you do, you either wax him or you don't. They don't even have special loot that you can't get any other way.
About the only thing I learned, if this DOES translate to fortress mode, is that Ill have my dwarfs be wrestlers before they train to be anything else, although I am not sure that would have helped much with the colossus who waxed my fort. 8 AxeDwarves and 10 marksdwarves (4 of which were elite) were useless. Maybe wrestling will help. That is why I want to find the bronze dude and see how my adventurer handles him. Currently nothing is a challenge to him although those spiders 'cheated' so he can't fight back. Anything else I pound to dust with ease.