The Japanese plum yew is an excellent ground cover under trees and deer will not bother them. Other yews are an attracter to deer, but the Japanese plum is a good alternative for your situation.
Good luck.

periwinkle? its an evergreen.

Good choices are columbine, virginia bluebells, tiarella, heuchera, cimicifuga racemosa (black cohosh), and christmas fern.
The first 2 are flowers easy to grow from seed and the last ones are good substitutes for hosta.
Deer should leave them reasonably alone.
Good luck!

Liriope looks good in small doses... it is gorgeous when it flowers but too much and it looks like un-mowed grass. Daylilies will grow in partial shade, and so will tall phlox.

Some of the laminums are healthy enough to be vigorous without being savage like yellow archangel.

I'm a big fan of lamiums- dead nettles, they call them (why, I don't know) and have taken to using them, striped pachysandra, and lilly of the valley under all the trees where nothing used to grow-