What's wrong with this battle?

[shovah]

the reason people said you need more damage is because it means by the time you do hit it wil be more than 25 dmg.

[Alneyan]

Amon Hotep could be nice in the Helmet department. It also is expensive. Very much so. Still, you might find some use for 50% fire resistance, 30 natural protection and Awe +5. Besides, it looks good. Crown of the Ivy King might be another option, and a much more reasonable one; it would give your Pretender some regeneration.

In the upscale department for armours, there is always the Robe of the Magi. It would work out much better than your current Rainbow Armour, but it is, of course, much more expensive (and finding the right mage could be troublesome, if you haven't been blood hunting).

The Stone Bird could help you with attacking, though I suspect its "lessen defence of the target" effect happens after your main weapons. That one aside, a Crystal Heart/Elixir of Life comes to mind, if you are concerned about your Pretender biting the dust; I know I like too much Immortality, the Armour of Virtue and things of the like. Well, live and let live and all that...

[OG_Gleep]

Theres better buffs then cold resistance, my point was that he was only using part of his script with those paths.

[Ygorl]

I'm still working on how the ice devils were managing to hit the Nataraja... Let's see... A defense of 43, taken down to 38 by fatigue (10:1 ratio... Right? It's 20:1 for protection?). Now, each ice devil has four attacks per round (two with the dagger, two with the tail). That means the last attack of the round will be an attack rating of 22 versus a defense of 31. How unlikely is that to hit? Consulting Zooko's experiment, that's about 5%... So, pretty unlikely that you got hit, even for no damage, in a given round. Two rounds in a row, even more unlikely (considerably less than one percent). Could it have happened, though? Sure. Try this: make a little test map. Give one side the two ice devils, equipped as they were, and the other side a nataraja appropriately equipped. Add the spells to the appropriate nations, so they can cast them in the battle. Re-run the fight a few times. See how it goes. I'm guessing most of them you would get hit much less often.

I do have a vague recollection that the healing/reinvigorating effects of a life drain weapon are independent of whether it actually does any damage. Not sure, though, and an uninspired search of the forum revealed nothing. If you do run the tests, let me know how it goes!