I don't have much to add other than you probably can use any malty style as a base. Brown Ale, Märzen, Dunkel and Old Ale come to mind if you want to choose a non-stout as a base. Dunkelweizen might be ok, but you'd probably want a yeast that you know well so you can control the phenolic/ester balance.
thinking it through, yes - maerzen came to mind, using vienna and a bit of munich, but then sort of capping off that raw dough/grain with
victory malt, crystal, flaked barley, small roasted.
i have
38% vienna
30% 2row
8% flaked barley
8% munich II
7% victory
7% crystal 40
2% brown malt
aiming for very sweet, like certainly a "dessert" beer. using a maltotriose negative yeast like WLP002 -
1.084 down to 1.028
but i want to use this as a base to add almond extract and see how that goes. i really love the taste of almond, marzipan and especially almond extract.