So with Mass Effect 2 around the corner and Dragon Age still whirring around in my 360, I always like to have a little think before hand about the character class I'm going to play, in any RPG. The problem I seem to have and I don't know if anyone else does is that I always seem to regret my decision of the character I've chosen. Maybe I'm just an indecisive person, but I had to play the first 3 or 4 hours of Mass Effect before I could fully get into it with a character I wanted to play. Then I blasted through the rest of the game. Dragon Age was weirder because the origins stories made me think, well this story could be more fun or whatever. I decided in Dragon Age the mage story was the best so I went that way and about 15 hours from that I'm still going. Mass Effect however, was sooo hard to decide. Maybe I'm greedy and just wanted all the powers, it doesn't matter though. I've never played an RPG where I've felt I'm gonna be 100% satisfied with my character choice. Hopefully Mass Effect 2 will be easier for me to decide.

So with Mass Effect 2 around the corner and Dragon Age still whirring around in my 360, I always like to have a little think before hand about the character class I'm going to play, in any RPG. The problem I seem to have and I don't know if anyone else does is that I always seem to regret my decision of the character I've chosen. Maybe I'm just an indecisive person, but I had to play the first 3 or 4 hours of Mass Effect before I could fully get into it with a character I wanted to play. Then I blasted through the rest of the game. Dragon Age was weirder because the origins stories made me think, well this story could be more fun or whatever. I decided in Dragon Age the mage story was the best so I went that way and about 15 hours from that I'm still going. Mass Effect however, was sooo hard to decide. Maybe I'm greedy and just wanted all the powers, it doesn't matter though. I've never played an RPG where I've felt I'm gonna be 100% satisfied with my character choice. Hopefully Mass Effect 2 will be easier for me to decide.

I feel that way, but only with Stat Point allocation.
 
Happened with Mass Effect and a few other games. Sometimes I'll get near the end and go "Huh...well, I kinda screwed up." with pointless stats raised above others which would be better. My second run through of Mass Effect I had a better idea and loved each of the new runs. Quit for a long time, then decided to make an Adept for ME2. Ended up doing the same and putting skill points into things I'd rather not have. Started a second Adept a while later and I have him pretty much exactly how I want him, and love him.
 
Just have to say, being a Biotic Power House is the freakin' best in that game. Especially Singularity, which is hands down my favorite skill (it was Lift (on my Vanguard) until I played Adept, switched almost instantly). Nothing beats pulling 4+ Geth troops out of cover over the side of a cliff. I sent a mercenary almost into orbit once (Singularity shot her really high, Lift x3 + Throw x3 (Wrex and Kaidan)).
 
Anyway, back on topic, I kind of had the same way with Fallout 3, too. Took a runthrough before I knew what I wanted, but all my subsequent plays were all enjoyable and easy to decide what I wanted to do.

I feel the same way sometimes. But Vanguard is the closest I get to double-dipping between combat and magic, so Vanguard it is.

I went through with the Infiltrator class.  I wanted the sniper gun & did what I needed to get it, along with some Engineering features.  I never did the Biotic stuff.   I never bother to figure out what's best for a character. I just play through with whatever I get. Later on, if an achievement requires me to play a certain way, I will. But I don't get online to find out which "build" I should be using.  Reading builds is like looking at the answers at the back of a text book.  It ruins the entire experience of discovery in the game.  And further, it doesn't really matter. Whatever you choose can still win the game at the end, well at least most of the time.  Once I picked the worst class, Bioengineer, in Too Human, & just had a morbid time finishing the game...but I did get through it.  They should have locked the Bioengineer for one to play after you finished one of the other 3, that actually had a chance.

It's a problem endemic to the genre. With the first Mass Effect it wasn't too much of a problem because the game isn't quite as long as Dragon Age and the game rewarded multiple playthroughs not only with achievement points but weapon bonuses, etc. But I felt that twinge about early choices about twenty hours into Dragon Age. Not just with character classes, but with early point distributions I made without really knowing how the game was structured. You almost have to play the game through once before you really know what you're doing. With Dragon Age, though, that's a lot of wasted hours. That is, unless you want to wait a week or two after the game comes out, then scour online FAQs for tips about character creation. I can guarantee you, though, that ten minutes after GameStop opens next Tuesday, Mass Effect 2 will be in my 360 and I'll be merrily making decisions about my character that I'll regret twenty hours in.
 
It's really too bad that you make so many decisions about your character before you begin. I wish that these RPGs would just throw you in and allow your character class to develop more organically from your play style. I think Bethesda tried to do this a bit with Oblivion, where your talents increased as you used them, but that created its own set of problems. Anyway, I think there's a lot of room for improvement in this, but until then we're basically stuck with a set of not-so-great options. ME2 is definitely going to require at least three playthroughs. I absolutely cannot decide which character class to use, they all look fantastic.