Reminds me of Desktop Dungeons. I tried to make a game like that last year, but without a procedural dungeon and a little extra depth it came out as a math game without a clear formula to solve. Same problem here. I think a clear representation of the damage and experience exchange before committing to an action and an undo button would alleviate a lot of the frustration.
Viewing post in The Blood Mage (Jam Edition) jam comments
I played Desktop Dungeons even though this was not the direct inspiration I can see where you are coming from. With clear represantation you mean like for example: If you see the enemy and have a specific spell selected, you get like in another color -5 next to your health or something like that? That the player doesn't need to figure the math for themselves and the consequences of this specific action are displayed?
In Myth Bearer and Deep Rune you can reset the room, this is not really possible here, except I would divide the game in room building blocks. Undoing a step would also be possible, even though I like the idea that death is at least a little bit punishing.
Thanks for the feedback!