Wait, Misery, you said you were playing one of the battletoad characters? In the latest version of the game I'm seeing them take 20% of usual melee damage (and it says they do that on the menu). Is that new? (I hadn't played them before) Because that would totally change the ranged vs melee balance in the exact sort of way I was saying would be good for the game.
With the newest patch, some character types have gained resistance to melee (as well as piles of other effects). I've only just started messing with that patch though, so most of my melee tricks came from the version of the game that didn't have that (and I do this with any character because I'm aggressive and have no patience).
The Draconites actually seem to have LOTS of effects on them. The downsides is very low starting health, and very low starting mana (but very HIGH attack). The upside is lotsa stuff. Lol.
But yes, look carefully at the new character screen the next time you have to make one, and look at each type from each time shard; I think there's more than one that has resistance to melee. The exact value of resistance depends on the character type.
......also I'm now going to call these guys Battletoads from now on because that is just hilarious.
EDIT: Actually I'm looking at the character stats right now for my Battletoad dude, and the anti-melee stat is actually 80%, not 20. Yikes. That's alot.
It makes sense though, these guys are heavy and are as slow as freaking dirt. If you're gonna use them, better bring a strong speed-boost / jump boost enchant, because they're quite difficult to use otherwise.