Warrior Build

You're going to get owned without some extra healing. I'm on the 3rd floor and just killed a 100 monster zoo with a melee build. Going Rogue / Permadeath with this build

Swords
Shield Bearer
Masterof Arms
Smithing
Alchemy
Unarmed (for passive bonuses) -- Edit: i've been told the bonuses are only active when not holding a weapon
Dodge

It took 4 health potions and most of my food. The only things that are a real threat are bosses and casters (Octo spellcasts hit for 8 damage now!). Traps are annoying but not really dangerous. Regular monsters hit for 1-2 damage and with Duck and Cover, Walk it Off and Suit Up all up I'm regenning 1 hp/turn.

As effective good armor is now, boss monsters can have really good armor too. On level 2 with a crappy 5 damage sword, there was a boss Pumpkinn to whom I did 1 damage per hit. Luckily I had enough materials to craft a better weapon plus some damage increasing potions.

 

Meh. Dieing is fun.

 

Vampirism
Berserker Rage
Unarmed Combat
Archaeology
Assasination
Fungal Arts
Burglary
I don't know how this works in 1.0.5 but it sure kicked ass in .3.
The engine for this is Vampirism+Unarmed+Rage, once you have one or two shields you basically breeze through the opponents. I tend to go for dodge, counter chance and crit chance over absorption, with the added benefit of not losing magic power. You need to be slightly careful until you reach level 3 or so, put the first point into fungal arts so you always have enough shrooms, after that level up rage to max and after that free for all. At level 4, this character breezes through everything the dungeon throws at him.
You have everything here - high trap affinity due to Burglary and Dr. Jones, an amazing support set with fungal arts and a very, very strong melee character. Beginning should be easier now since Vampirism drains min. 3, haven't tested this against zoos yet, might be marginally harder now (I beat all of them without using a single item...)
Gets repetitive though since you only head into the fray and kick ass. Only tactic involved is positioning yourself in a corner so you have max. 2 assailants. You can always get away with inky hoglanterns anyway

 

Vampirism, Dual Wielding, Assassination, Artful Dodger, Swords, Burglary and Archeology.

No crafting, no casting.