I, too, am working with acidic shade - I feel your struggle. We only transiently have deer, though. The following work for me. Hostas seem to do well (but would be a deer buffet - planting mint around them seems to have scared off the rabbits a bit, at least). Azaleas and camellias do well. Bulbs in the spring and fall (good success with red spider lily, graveyte giant snowflakes, various daffodils, grape hyacinth, Spanish bluebells, various glads that seem endemic to the neighborhood). Ferns and northern sea oats are doing ok. Rudbeckia. Foxglove and cannas both tolerate shade in my 8b heat. I have a beautiful cast iron plant transplanted from a huge stand of them by my parents’ house, which is bordered on one side by a wood full of deer and seems to have suffered not a bit. Datura on the sunny side of the house (maybe 6 hours of sun?). Confederate rose is doing well out back in a fenced area. Astilbe and coral bells are surviving but certainly don’t look like the catalogues. Hydrangeas do great. Various native asters and violets seem very happy (violets are only a weed if they are growing where you don’t want them to!). Mums grow well in-ground, are cheap, and are very pretty and striking in partial shade here.

Good luck! Don’t give up!