Let me add that that's actually part of the fun, once the encounter is over. It's frustrating to have your best tactic fail, but if they worked all the time, where would the thrill of victory come from?
I would like to say that even though my character has yet to use his uber-cool two-weapon spring attack, rend and retreat build, I'm having fun here. Scared away from the ice devil, kept at distance by water, it's all making me try new approaches, rather than having Jemal just line up bad guys and let us do our thing at a monster firing range.