Grimrock

Thanks for the information. If I'm not mistaken, Ice Shards costs 25 mana and Icy Bolts cost 30. My fire mage can manage mana by using Fireburst, which costs only 15, but the ice mage is having serious sustainability issues - two encounters, time to rest! Elsewhere on the forum it was mentioned that...

It seems that early-game monsters have a chance to miss characters with 0 evasion. It is assumed that later on monsters get more accurate and a character with 0 evasion would perhaps take every hit.

You make a good point - we don't know the base numbers or formulas for accuracy and evasion.

Front-line Minotaur tank: 25 Armors skill for doubled shield evasion, 30 Unarmed for the 20 evasion, evasive trait
Wears heavy armor, fights unarmed or wields throwing axes

Secondary tank is free to wear Lurker set

Characters with 0 evasion—like mages in the back row—might as well equip heavy armor. Not sure why this did not occur to me earlier! Tank-mages for all.

Wondering if Icy Bolts has the same chance to freeze at 13 points versus 50 points in Ice Magic...

Unarmed Combat defensive benefits: 40hp, 40 evasion (20 from +10 dexterity bonus) Conclusion: Unarmed Combat is barely overshadowed by Dodge as a defensive skill until the player reaches 50 points in Dodge. Therefore, the Unarmed Combat expert enjoys near optimal offensive and defensive capabilities...