How do you win as a non-caster Felid start?

Take any non-caster Felid start other than maybe Berserker. Let's say, wanderer that happens to get no books, or monk, or fighter. I know these aren't recommended backgrounds, but I know people can win with them.

What is your strategy? Pump unarmed to kill quick? Get lots of stealth? Try to get fighting to survive more than one or two hits? Or raise everything equally? Is the endgame goal to cast spells anyhow?

I feel like with frail characters like this, I can usually survive for a bit, avoiding hard fights and playing smart, until about Lair, where stealth is harder to utilize, enemies are fast, often in packs, and it's hard to fight one v one because of the more open floors, and most general damage is high enough to kill you very quickly.

Do you just have to take a God that has more active helpful abilities like Fedhas? Or do you have to spend wands and potions on most encounters? Or really really run around or away a lot and try to force smaller encounters somehow?

I feel like this is a problem I'm having with a lot of more frail characters that is just exemplified in a melee Felid, that I'm not sure how to deal with.