So, basically, what class you usually pick when starting a new RPG and why? Just curious...

I almost always choose an archer class and sometimes a melee/mage (battlemage). Archer because I like being sneaky and shooting people from afar and battlemage, because magic + sword = awesome.

Um, depends on what the party needs.

I'll often roll up a dwarven tank who's low on brains but very good humored. Typically melee with an axe.

But my faovrites are chaotic greedy theives with bows and daggers. Low hit points means that ranged is the way to...easier to hit and run. (he who runs away lives to fight another day)

I look to see what types of guilds there are and then make a pure file for each. For Oblivion I had a Warrior, Mage, Thief, and Assassin. Then I pick my favorite and do the MQ.

Melee/Mage, I guess, as that is how I eventually end up playing.

But neither my first MW or OB character did have any combat skills. It was all about speechcraft, restoration, stealth, acrobatics and so on. Always when I start a RPG I hope I will be able to solve conflicts in a very diplomatic way and just use a very high charisma/speechcraft. Unfortunately, few games allow for that, so eventually I play with combat anyway.

I hope speechcraft play a more important role in Skyrim than Morrowind and Oblivion

It all depends on the game, setting, plot, eventual companions, races, equipment and looks.

Normally though I like playing as a melee fighter with medium or light armor for mobility and high skills in terms of talking, you can get anything you want if you're persuasive/intimidating enough, and I like playing that way. Though if I fail at that I'd like to be able to hold my own in a fight.

melee/archer, beacause i like bows but hate when enemies get too close

Pure Mage, I love magic.
Then I make a Pure Melee.

I like both the same, but I went with Pure Mage as my vote because I usually make the mage first.

There's the limiting factor that some games don't allow certain classes to be equally effective as other, like with Pure Archer. I wish it wasn't so...

I chose pure melee because i like to make my characters knights with swords and shields.

My first class is always a Warrior so I can just dabble in the magic and stealth sides while still being able to fall back on my trusty mace/axe when I need to. After that I make a magic/warrior guy and increase my spellage and third would be thief/warrior

Usually melee/archer of some kind, with no spellcasting at all. Eventually I'll make a caster, but I like to keep the two separate.

I voted Melee/Archer, but I would actually put archer above Melee.

I don't really know why exactly. I love the use of poisons, and I love the idea of killing from a distance, being unable to be retaliated against.

A wise man once told me, "A samurai will kill a ninja in a fair fight every single time. But if they're in a fair fight, the ninja already screwed up."

I used to like rogues and played those almost exclusively. I grew out of that though. I've always liked Paladins, but didn't like their rigid "code" - sometimes integrity and honesty are two different things.

Whatever the reasons, I like archers. I'm not foolish enough to think I'll never get caught however, so I like the melee aspects too. In fact, despite emphasizing archery more... Sometimes what gets you out of a mess is far more important than what gets you in one. I prefer to use archery more, but I make sure not to allow my melee aspects to be vulnerable either. It's the fail-safe, and if the fail-safe doesn't work you shouldn't be doing it in the first place. That's my take on it anyway.

It really depends on the type of game. In a action-RPG like TES I'll probably pick a bog-standard melee character in order to get a feel for the game, while in a more traditional CRPG I'll almost certainly pick a class like a cleric (for D&D rules) with mixed abilities because I don't know what my party will look like at the beginning of the game.

Well... Generally I like to try to play pure melee first just because a first playthrough is on the "normal" difficulty, and then I rip out the mage to inevitably trounce the game on its hardest difficulty setting.

It seems as though mages are generally the most powerful class in any RPG, whether it's on paper or on the screen.

Pure Melee

My first Medieval/Fantasy game was this - http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/ancients-1-death-watch which I played on a laptop in DOS. Funny enough, I remember the retail version consisted of floppy disks. It was this game I made a Warrior class who specialized in melee weapons only. The weapons being axe and mace. Ever since that game throughout the years of Medieval/Fantasy games, I would always make a Warrior class who was pure melee only.

I go melee with a little magic

Stealth (w/dagger, but sometimes marksman) with some utility magic.

I always start out with a pure warrior. From my experience it's the best place to start when exploring a new game. After an hour or two I'm pretty confident with the game and then I start over, usually a warrior/thief mix with a heavy dose of magic as backup

I usually choose a mage-like character. I mean, games like these are pretty much all about doing things that we can't do IRL. If we really wanted to, we could just grab a sword and start chopping people's heads off. Magic however, that's a different story all together.

And I do hope you realize that was a joke.

Melee/Archer. I love Ranger-type characters.

This is true.

There's a very human reason for that behavior as well.

Picking locks? That's real. I can do it. I know what is and isn't possible for a lock. Thus, I know the limits.

Swinging a sword? We know what that does, and we know the limits. No one on Earth can swing a sword hard enough to make a pony appear out of thin air.


But "magic..." What is that? What limits does it have? "NONE! IT'S MAGIC!"

That's why it's overpowered - because we perceive it as imagination and limitless. Many game creators (and players) fail to acknowledge the issue of balance or of realistic limits. Even if magic were real, it would have limits - limits that both game creators and the players have historically failed to impose on their players or themselves.

I'll be a pure mage in the beginning, simply because I wall see how it works out. It sounds awesome too!

My favourite is usually a fighter/mage combo. Probably has to do with Ultima. I'm just so accustomed to this playstyle now. ^_^

Oh you'll be able to end conflicts with your voice, but not in the way you intended to

Pure mage. I usually mess around with other character types, assassin, warrior, archer, but I always come back to pure mage.

I usually play pure mage. But in Oblivion my conjuration and destruction skills weren't enough to beat the dumb leveled creatures (before I installed OOO) so I had to resort to using my 40 blade skill to hack at things in addition to lich's and fireballs.