Starting a Enchanter...

[Noselacri]

You absolutely can level solely with charm from 12 to 50. I've done it (well, to 45 now) and it has been not only perfectly viable but also incredibly effective. 180-200ish charisma will do the job just fine. I used the following:

Ears: Opalline Earring (+5 cha)
Head: Siryn Hair Hood (+13 cha)
Face: Incandescent Mask (+7 cha)
Chest: Noble's Robes (+5 cha)
Neck: A Gypsy medallion (+9 cha)
Arms: Gatorscale Sleeves
Belt: Braided Cinch Cord
Back: Hooded Black Cloak
Shoulders: Embroidered Black Cape
Legs: Drake-hide Leggings (+5 cha)
Hands: Impskin Gloves
Wrists: Golden Cat Eye Bracelet (+7 cha)
Feet: well, I used those kobold hide boots because I didn't buy gebs
Rings: 55hp5ac rings
Primary: Rod of Insidious Glamour (+12 cha)
Secondary: A Crude Stein (+15 cha)
and Range: nothing

...that'll put you at 205 charisma if you're a high elf and put all your starting points into it, which I did because mana pool is vastly overrated and because cha gear tends to have shit stats and thus it'll be better for you to swap in your real gear piece by piece as your charisma maxes out than to wear crafted cha jewelry with real gear sitting in your pack because you need the cha. You'll be able to get more hit points this way because you can get away with wearing platfireweddingrings instead of cha rings etc.

You'll want hit points. You'll want it in every slot that you can get it. It's more important than charisma, even when charm-kiting - don't use charisma rings. The extra 200ish hp from that set of gear is invaluable. Don't worry much about int/mana, you won't actually need a big mana pool. You'll spend more time waiting for spawns or hp regen than mana.