Dungeon Crawl - Where adventurers go to die

Oh, cripes.

Pay no attention to what people say about Deep Dwarves - obviously an unlucky early start will screw them over like any character, but their lack of passive HP regeneration is covered by reduction of damage from all sources, very little shit given about poison, a slow metabolism, and a solid Evocation stat to recharge your pre-supplied Wand of Healing, and a couple of gods like Trog or Mahkleb can lend a hand too. (At high piety, Mahkleb restored HP every time I killed something. After running into some trouble down some branches it was just a matter of meandering back into the dungeon and slaughtering wholesale.)

Give them a respectable racial bonus for armour and shields (racial weapons are also a nice thing, and in my run Centaurs and other ranged units didn't have shit on me when I chance-found a Dwarven Shield of Reflect), and you've got a one-man wrecking crew who don't need no pansy magic. Njordbludgeon was chugging along at level 15 when I eventually died due to pure unattentiveness in the Hall of Blades.