I'm currently solo'ing Act 1 with a custom melee character. Most fights are over in 2 turns since I can one-shot most enemies. I put a point in Warfare and a point in Scoundrel (the latter just so I could get Cloak And Dagger. As I've leveled, I've got 1 point in Physical Armor, 1 point in Magic Armor, and 3 points in Two-Handed. Race is Dwarf (of course). Talents are The Pawn (starting) and Warlord (after leveling).
Between The Pawn, Cloak And Dagger, and Phoenix Dive, I can get around the battlefield really fast. Also, I haven't changed out those Teleport gloves, so I've still got Teleport, which means if I can't get to my enemy, I can bring my enemy to me. Teleport also lets me group up enemies so I can one-shot more of them in one go (I've killed as many as 4 enemies, who were at full health, in one attack). Warlord basically gives me free turns.
Playing this character solo I'm almost at the final fight. I mean, I can see the final fight, and the shriekers are already dead, so I could just go in, but I don't think I'm quite strong enough for that fight. I particularly need more armor. When you're one-manning, you need lots of armor (mostly magic armor) to avoid getting CC'd, because CC=death. If I was running this character with a full party, the fights would be stupid easy.
Ranged is more effective than melee tactically, but melee can deal out the most damage overall (unless they're 1h+shield, in which case they do the least damage).
