Fatigue, Encumbrance and battle

[GrudgeBringer]

I was thinking about this subject and although I have read everything there is to read..I find that I am just not clear on it.

Lets Take a Pretnder...POD

He develops NO encumbrance so the heavier the armour the better..

However He DOES ( I believe) Develop Fatigue.

Now this is where I get confused.

Because he doesn't develop encunbrance then he can fight all day without tiring.

BUT, if he casts spells he DOES develop Fatigue.

Does the Armour he has on contribute to Fatigue on a POD even ifhe does't incur encumbrance penalties, or is the fatigue only based on the spell fatigue that he casts?

Qustion 2 (an Oh by the way question) He has Rod of Death Damage 10, Magic weapon, length 1 armour negating and 2 attacks.

I had a person tell me that an enchanted sword would be better as it has Defense 1 and the rest is aprrox the same (now he is not arguing that it SHOULD replace Rod of Death..he just says its better....I don't agree.

What say you gentlemen?

Thanks