Favorite class/character archetype?

What do you enjoy playing the most, in terms of class and skillset? What kind of activity do you like the best - especially in RPGs?

Also, please bring up examples of games that have provided the best outlet for you in this way, where you've really been allowed to enjoy exactly the kind of character you love playing.

Personally, for me, I've sort of gone through an evolution with this - since I was a kid.

Used to be I wanted to play a fighter of some kind. Preferably something simple - and pretty much always a melee combat kind of character. Dual wielding was a big hit once it started being a common feature in RPGs - which wasn't always the case. I love dual wielding because it's fast and looks cool - and I always loved speed and grace when it comes to combat.

I never enjoyed mages or clerics much. Well, I never liked having to mess around with spells and I especially didn't like the cliché of the weak or old wizard who had to fiddle around with a bunch of stuff before he could make himself effective. Also, mages always seem to be screwed once they're out of mana or memorised spells.

It has to do with how impatient I am as a player - and I just want to be able to focus on my objective with a minimum of fuss.

But, as I've gotten older, I've developed a more refined taste - if you'll pardon the presumption.

While I retain an impatient nature - it's no longer exciting to me to be a straight-up fighter. I've also developed a distaste for endless combat over the years - and I've always loved exploration, so for the last ten years or around that, I've preferred stealth classes.

Stealth is great for the explorer, because he can usually enter places with powerful enemies before others can - and he has the tools necessary for opening locks and disarming chests.

Also, since he can avoid fighting most of the time - it means I don't have to face quite as much padding as other classes do, in most RPGs.

If I can be a stealth archer - I jump at the opportunity, simply because there's something immensely practical about ranged combat - and there's a certain grace to using bows, I find. I never use thrown weapons or crossbows if I can help it, as I find them lacking in style

As for games that have given me the best examples of this kind of gameplay:

Well, Skyrim is the ultimate game for the Stealth Archer who loves exploration. In that way, it's a dream come true for me.

I was crazy in love with the WoW Rogue back in vanilla - because he had zero downtime and he was the most focused of the DPS classes, and it's still the best implementation of stealth and stealth abilities I've seen in an MMO. I was born to play that class

Fallout 3 was pretty good as well, because of the stealth mechanics and perks.

NWN and NWN 2 are also great for my kind of character, because of the freedom and flexibility to come up with the perfect build. That said, I find stealth isn't that well implemented in them.

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So, how about you?

I've always liked mages first and foremost. But have more recently developed the taste for more careful and precise play styling of a thief or sneaky type. My most favorite character type was a blend of the two - the Arcane Trickster from 3.5 D&D. In NWN 2 with the fanmade PRC pack you can do sneak ranged touch attacks with certain spells. Dare I saw, awesome.

I have to say I'm partial to defensive tanks - anything burly in heavy armor Thing is, since they're mostly passive they need something to spice that up, like spellcasting or conversational skills.

I'm also a sucker for characters that have some support skills that aren't easily quantifiable - like bartering, crafting, performing. The reason I love Darklands is that you could have a senile old alchemist who was a real liability for the party, since he couldn't engage any enemies, couldn't run from guards etc. But he pulled his own weight by brewing potions.

I prefer to play a mage who brings death, and destruction to all my enemies. A good example would be the Dragon Age games with the different magic systems.

So why the DragonAge games well I hate having to memorize spells, and only being able to cast a few large ones before I have to rest. I hate how that works in D&D games.

My second choice would be to play a good aligned paladin bringing divine justice to all those who seek to harm innocents for profit, or just to spread darkness.

The Baldur's gate & Neverwinter games allowed me to play that type of charterer.

I enjoy playing ranged class more than melee class as I hate "chasing" enemies everywhere. I've always loved casters, something about being able to cast spells makes playing a character more enjoyable. My favourite classes in BG2 were clerics and mages/sorcerers including the dual/multi classes like fighter/mage.

Recently though, I became more tolerant on melee classes, although it really depends on ability you get. I'm enjoying playing stealthy class in Skyrim, love the idea of sneaking around and stealing stuff but not so much killing, or injuring people with the ability at this point - once you get discovered, you are kind of.... f*cked.

I've always loved being a caster in all the rpgs I've played. Was a wizard in EQ1/EQ2 and a mage in WoW, will always pick a caster in any rpg single player game. Dealing damage from afar, having tactical diversity from various spells, if implemented correctly casters are just more fun and interesting then any other class imo.

I prefer support characters like healers/buffers, crafters etc.If games doesn't have have dedicated support class than I pick class that has most cc.

My preference has always been to melee, either a lightly armoured fighter or rogue type. I fenced for twelve years, so that probably has something to do with what I enjoy. For me, this predates computer games by about 10 years, as it was pretty much the same for me during my pen and paper era. We had some pretty epic pen and paper campaigns during Ren Fest time, made even better by the fresh bruises we'd just acquired via jousting or swordplay.

Even with less graphics, games like Wizardry and Ultima fulfilled this perfectly for me. Games like Baldur's Gate, various mmo's, and other games only made it better. I find myself trying to melee in space computer games and even in World War One and Two squad games.

Having to play a mage type to me is sheer punishment. Just not my style.

I tend to like brawlers. Not beefy enough to tank, but able to stand toe to toe and win most exchanges through a combo of sustainability and damage.

It's a complicated question for me. I don't like 'single character' games probably for this reason. I prefer more 'tactical' characters in a group (some call them 'support'). In group games I tend to think that I am the cleric and the others are the companions. Knowing who to buff, who to heal, when to get 'dirty' and grab my mace for some extra support, when to soak some damage while others recover. That's my preferred character. The more tools I have, the better. The best example of this was in Baldur's Gate and Planescape Torment, where my character was a dual class cleric (to level 7) then switched to wizard, so at the end he was a cleric/wizard with lots and lots of options.

If I have to play a single character game, I completely hate melee characters, that's probably why I could never play the Gothics, they force me to play melee from the start and only learn magic after some series of quests and/or joining factions (which again involves solving their quests). In games like TES I prefer mages. I specially like if I can summon stuff and stay back, again, like some sort of commander.

As Dart said, melees are simple to play and suit certain types of players. I normally play casters exclusively. However, in DDO the people in our Guild have, over time, built characters of every type. It's fun to play with someone who for years refused to play a hocus pocus class when only a pointy stick was needed, as he ventures into the unknown as a caster. What's interesting, is that I've been playing a lot of non-casters in DDO lately and when I switched back to a caster recently, I totally forgot about spells and leapt into a melee armed with only a stick. We all laughed!!

AoE tankmage, specifically the Storm Controller AT in City of Heroes.

And you may say, "Oh, an MMO - that doesn't count." And I would counter that City of Heroes blurred ATs to such a flexible and customizeable degree that it would be D&D's pigeonholing of "roles" that doesn't count

Good and interesting answers thus far, so thanks for that

As for melee classes being simple, indeed, I think they should be to a certain extent. But the best implementations are hard to master - which is just as it should be!

Always thief. I like to give him (or imagine him) a scout flavour, with a supporting melee role in groups.

I tend to play a Paladin whenever they're available, as they often have a mix of combat prowess, heavy armor and healing spells. I also like "battle mages", who combine magic and whacking stuff.

As for pure casters (Mage, Cleric, Warlock etc): I enjoy them a lot, but only if there's a good magic system. Too often that is not the case, leading to a lot of rather awkward combat.

The one class I rarely get into is Rogue/Thief. I just can't be bothered sneaking around. I bring a Rogue in games where they provide enough utility for me to do so, but I tend to stay clear of them otherwise.

Yeah, I also enjoy playing the occasional Paladin - but it's more about being a fan of that aesthetic - the sort of classical knight in shining armor, and less about liking the slow and bulky armored dude which can't be destroyed.

That said, I really loved the Diablo 2 Paladin with the Zeal ability

Since I first started playing D&D back when I was about 10, I've always gone for the hybrid wizard-warrior. My first major character was a half-elf magic-user/fighter, and that's what I defaulted to on most D&D games over the years. In other video games I usually tried to find the closest fit, but it wasn't always possible.

I've never been a big fan of the Gandalf-cosplay, weakling wizard. Why advertise you're a 1hp wonder by wearing garish robes and a stupid hat? I suppose this type of character let me get around that stereotype fairly well. Over time, I've moved away from the warrior aspect a bit and gone for the thief/wizard hybrid now that stealth is a viable option in video games. It's just more fun setting up complicated attacks with one of those.

I've never, ever been a fan of clerics. They've always felt like they were crammed into the game in a sort of arms race against the constant death in early D&D, and they've become more and more dull over the years. Now it feels like poison, disease, and the classic concept of hit points exist only to justify the healer role. The original cleric was supposedly envisaged as more of a Van Helsingesque anti-undead warrior than a healer, but somehow that got lost and now a lot of cleric-types fight as bad as generic wizards. In my DMing days, I always came up with alternate forms of healing and left priests as sorcerous villains in the classic pulp fantasy style.

The Elder Scrolls, with their freeform character development, have given been the best for letting me play my sort of character. "Hybrid" characters don't feel too weak or too strong and you never feel like you're playing "wrong" by being one. It's a shame that Skyrim forgot to mix the classes up amongst the factions like Morrowind did, but it's still the best game I've found for my stealth mage gameplay.

I've always enjoyed being a melee damage dealer. Not a fighter with plate armor but more a high agility/quick/medium armor type. I've enjoyed Ranger/Hunter types also. I've never enjoyed being a spell caster for some reason, even back in the D&D days. I have played Druids tho as long as they have viable damage dealing animal forms. I also like a character with some stealth abilities but never play a thief type as I don't steal even in games.

This makes me miss early WOW as I had my Rogue, Hunter and Feral Druid.

Typically, my first choice is a magic user and my second an archer/sniper. I dislike playing "dumb brutes" and when given the choice I tend to avoid playing fighter/melee characters.

Whenever possible, I choose ranged combat but when engaged in melee, I prefer the agile, lightly armoured type.

At character creation, I normally sacrifice points in strength/constitution in favour of intelligence and social skills. Let's just say that I prefer the intelligent, sophisticated charismatic type .

I also tend to like gameplay elements that lead to non-combat solutions sych as e.g. stealth, persuasion, etc.

I think I have to go a little RP to answer this question.

Dart: "I love dual wielding because it's fast and looks cool - and I always loved speed and grace when it comes to combat."

^ This. Absolutely. My need for speed and excitement has me playing dual wield rogues now, more than anything. FFXIV just released rogue/ninja in this latest patch, and it's the class I've always wanted with this game. I'd have been far more addicted from the beginning if they'd had it. I absolutely love it.

I love good-aligned assassins, and that's my favorite character to play in Skyrim.

I still love the idea of the cleric, the ultimate personification of her goddess. My D&D characters tend to be clerics of love/beauty goddesses, the kind of characters who spread beauty wherever they go as a manifestation of their goddess's energy. ^.^ But I like them being quick too, if possible.