I forgot to add: deer resistant

First what's causing the shade and how dense is it? Maples are shallow-rooted and suck up every drop of moisture. I don't know about deer resistance, but I have success with the following in dry shade: Ilex opaca, Buxus(several varieties), Hedera helix(slower variegated varieties), Aucuba, spring bulbs(especially daffs & tulips),any ephemeral such as Mertenesia virginica should do well, various running bamboos(which are slow for me in dry shade). Even these will do better with supplemental watering. Cornus florida tolerates some drought to a point, as do camellias and both do well in an understory.

Hellebore. The dry-shade absolutely never-even-sniffed-by-deer plant non-pareil.

And maybe comfrey? But it died on me - my impression was it did not like heavy soil.

And Christmas fern.

epimediums did well for me under a magnolia tree.

Ditch lilies.
Most things in my yard live in some version of shade but not all shade is created equal. What is the source of your shade?

Here is a link that might be useful: Pic of one of my ditch lilies

Thank you all for your good answers, which, of course, only bring more questions:

Loretta, don't the deer eat the lillies?

Noramcd, did your epimidium expand? My patch seems to be getting smaller and smaller and I'm most disappointed.

The "shade" I was refering to, Steve_NJ, was shade in general. I didn't think Mertensia v. would tolerate dry conditions as I thought it liked floodplains.

Birdgardner, hellebore definitely!