>- More overall damage is more important in killing a
>phantasmal killer than the number of hits dealt to it. If
>iceneedles seems really good here, probably it's because
>iceneedles is a lot of damage period to unarmored opponents,
>and phantasmal killers don't have a lot in the way of armor.

I'd like to add to this that iceneedles maledict the fiend, being able to lower it's maximum hp as well, thus reducing it's hp if it's below old maximum. This matters, as the fiend has high dam reduction and low max hp. Or this is the impression I've had so far, in addition to buff damage to unarmored foe.