Who should I play next?

[Clearbeard]

So having won the game as a seemingly overpowered Higher Archmage (normal/roguelike) after 45 hours or so of trying, I am looking for suggestions on what combination to try next. Since my D&D characters lean towards shield wielding fighters and since most of my Nethack ascensions were shield wielding samauri or valkyries, I've been trying to get a Bulwark off the ground. But they seem completely lackluster, and I have yet to break out of the teens let alone being close to going all the way. So are there any other suggestions for another gateway combination that might serve me well, but that has a sufficiently different play style to the archmage?

[Effigy]

Arcane Blade is a good sword/shield class. Good damage, good mobility, and solid defense. Wyrmic is another one you might want to try, although it's generally considered an underpowered class.

[Atarlost]

If you've won the game you probably have access to sun paladin (IIRC the unlock is the spider quest, which is hard to miss the questgiver for) They have a very nice multi-layer tanking style.

Archmages stack shields (temporary HP) and get spell and mental saves from stats.
Bulwarks stack armor (DR) and possibly defense (AC) and physical and to a lesser extent spell saves.
Wyrmics stack armor (DR) but less than bulwarks and regen (Fast Healing) and get physical and mental saves from stats.
Arcane Blades use shields (temporary HP) but not as well as Archmages and armor and can maybe afford defense. They get spell save naturally from stats. They're mostly a DPR class, though.
Sun Paladins stack shields (temporary HP) but not as well as archmages, regen (on hit so more like DR), armor (DR), HP, defense (AC), physical and spell saves, and a very powerful fractional shield (no D&D equivalent I know of, but it's really good). Oh, and they get a contingent heal.

Of these, Wyrmics are the weakest class. They have good utility powers, but their melee offense is pretty minimal and they're multiple attribute dependent. I think Sun Paladins are the strongest as tanks. Their only defensive weakness is mental saves, which are less ubiquitous than physical saves. Arcane Blades kill better, but the advantage probably isn't important on normal.

[Clearbeard]

Sun paladins look like an interesting choice, thanks!

I've been trying a summoner on Nightmare with limited results. It might be too much to bump difficulty AND go for a class I'm not too comfortable with, but I'm getting better. I just keep reminding myself of how I didn't always even make it out of the starting plane with an archmage!

Thanks for the suggestions, I look forward to more Tale telling in the months (years?) to come.