Don't mind the name... It was supposed to be "Bereft," as in:
Had a lot of fun with this character. The whole "evil knight" thing has long been a favorite of mine, and I also am a big fan of damage-over-time.'E's not pinin'! 'E's passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the perch 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!
I choose Ghoul because Retch worked very well with +Blight damage, and it also gave me the option of standing still and spreading damage-over-time as much as I could. As it turned out, it was a very good choice. Epidemic, which I'm normally not a fan of in the least, works incredibly well with Retch, since you can spread disease to an entire room. Bloodcaller was also incredible, since I was constantly doing small amounts of damage many times a turn - acid blood, diseases, Retch, projection damage, melee damage, Ruin, and so on. With a bunch of +healing mod gear, I was healing for enough per turn to take essentially no damage against regular foes.
I had a lot of luck with artifacts. I found most of the Reaver artifacts and got to around +50% blight damage. The Unflinching Eye was damn-near a requirement for Ghoul, since I had no way to deal with Confusion or Blind. Draino, the voratun plate armor randart I ordered from the merchant was just plain amazing.
This is the furthest I've ever gotten in the game. I've never cleared any of the prides before, so that was a good experience. Gorbat Pride was a piece of cake, apart from the summoner random boss right at the end whose Warhound was hitting me for more than 500 damage in melee. Vor Pride was trickier, but mostly just annoying since everything kept teleporting around and bugging the hell out of me. I eventually just started throwing diseases on anything I could see in the hopes that they would die. The Grushnak Pride was more of a problem; the random bosses at the entrance wrecked me with their Battle Calls and their overpowered class skills. I came back a few levels later and worked through Grushnak with little trouble. Then...
Rak'Shor was the death of me. I hate corrupters and necromancers, so I should have known better. Upon entering I caused as much havoc as possible, going invis and then using Domination Hex on a necromancer so his minions would attack him. I then laid down some diseases and stunned part of the room with Pacification Hex. Unfortunately this only set the stage; when invis ran out, I teleported away, landing in a small room where I though I could recover. I got most of my health back, and then a Dreadmaster decided to ruin my day. I swear to god, these things will be the death of all of my characters. I really hope they get toned down. After a few rounds of trying to fight the Dreadmaster, which was entirely a waste of time, I teleported away again, only to land in the middle of a bunch of necros and corrupters. I tried to escape, to defend myself, but it was pointless. Too many summons and too much damage killed me. I revived with my Ring of the Dead, and eventually got into a sort-of-safe position. I was able to recover a little before the orcs found me, and I teleported again... right next to the Anorithil/Necromancer boss. A Moonlight Ray crit hit me for 434 damage and I died.
I learned a lot on this playthrough, but I'm not very confident that I'll ever get much further in the game unless a few things are toned down - random bosses with insane skill levels, Dreadmasters, and plain necromancers summoning piles of undead instantly. Honestly, if I'm getting hit for ~500 damage by some enemies, I really fear for my other characters. Even with my insane constitution and life rating, plus my horrifically good 699 damage shielding rune, I was still unable to survive for even a few turns against certain enemies, and often had to run away. I guess I need to learn how to play more defensively, but ToME just doesn't have many non-exploity tactical options. A Controlled Phase Door rune would have helped some.