try turning down the defense they will get along the way, say if at endgame they would have 200 try seeing if 150 would work.
make sure when you make the dmg formula that it includes defence. such as "a.mat - (b.mdf * 0.5)" where before it deals dmg it take into account for def.
I don't know if the defense stat matters in this game, I gave the mage all the gear and she still takes just as much dmg as the others.
