I also play as a male human.
Medium height and weight and black hairs.

I just realised that I do the same thing. Always human fighter, for the first time through the game at least. I do it in pretty much every RPG, Dragon Age, Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Fable. and in Elder Scrolls I always go dark elf fighter :P Fighter generally seems to be the most balanced class. They are not too squishy, not too slow, can use pretty much any weapon and armor, not too advanced to master either. Good for casual playing.

Race is not so important to me, but I do enjoy playing female characters, especially when the gender is of significance to the course of the game or at least to the interaction with NPCs or party members. As for classes I usually go with rogue, thief or the like. Long range combat, lock picking, hacking, manipulating - that's my cup of tea.

I find that I automatically avoid anything that fits the assassin, barbarian, and "vanilla fighter" molds. (I don't like backstabbing, poison, and rage mechanics, and plain old fighter tends to get boring.) Otherwise, depends on the particular game and what I feel like at the time.

For me it varies depending on gameplay. In Dragon Age: Origins, I had my main character be a human mage (although I used him as an arcane warrior). For Dragon Age 2, I picked two-handed warrior since two-handed weapons were made worthwhile and awesome for the sequel. For Inquisition, I picked human two-handed warrior but I was really conflicted between that, a mage, and a double dagger rogue.

I tend to lean towards human warrior-types because of gameplay and because it just works for me. I will say I played Oblivion as a Dark Elf spellsword (that's basically spellcaster and warrior in one).

Of course, some games I play there are other characters that can get controlled by the player so I get to play as non-humans too.

Dwarf tanks ftw!

On single player rpgs and MMOs i always pick the human healer,especially the paladin healer,if it's available(heavy armor,defensive spells).Some games have the 'battle cleric' style,but i only like dedicated healers.Healer with a few attack spells/debuffs is ok,healer with alot of attack spells and a few healing spells is not.
In single player rpg only,if it has no healer class,i will choose the 'tank',i like seeing enemies attack me and do minimal damage(like dragon age after i got the juggernaut armor).Once in a blue moon,i like trying out the necromancer/demonology class.I don't like the DPS role.

i always end up a melee fighter no matter how optimistic that ill enjoy playing a mage or rogue at the start. in the end im just too lazy and end up walking into the middle of a pack and wailing away with a sword

Same here (though I do have a preference for races that are interesting mechanically). I actually consider being forced to play a male character to be a negative aspect of the game (and make me less likely to play the game in the first place), and being penalized for playing a female character to be the sort of thing that gets me to start hacking the game (like I plan to when I get around to playing the Gold Box games).

I kinda like to go with whatever sounds like fun at the time and seems like it would be a good fit for the game.

I managed to create a neverwinter super hero in Neverwinter Nights, also have been a female ranger one time. Sometimes I'd like to try a Halfling until I realize they are usually gimped in combat heavy games. Which is a shame.

Morrowind was probably one of my favorites because I could hit really hard like a warrior, be sneaky and play with magic as well, without any consequences. And be an archer as well.

I was a ninja in Final Fantasy 11 spinning blurred image as a tank. Mass Effect I decided a female android fit well.

I always play human mage.

neverwinter nights was the worst slap across the face for playing human mage.

boy howdy, that last battle. but I beat it. but jeez. what a battle. took me like 40 minutes to one hour with like 5 different parts of hit and fades. it was good thing I saved so many scrolls especially tensers. I saved pretty much every tenser I found.

but I won.

I'm kind of the same way. I can relate more to a Human fighter (martial artist here) then a half elf, half dwarf mage. By far the simplest to understand but the most powerful class is subjective.

True power is in the eye of the beholder (Shout out to the Westwood Associates classic.)

I like to use unusual setups as well, particularly when they actually work.

For example, mage tanks: Not viable in most games (because mages have low HP and defense), but there exist games where it works. Here are 2 examples that I am aware of:

Baldur's Gate 2: Create a mage or sorcerer (sorcerers are better if you have already decided which spells you like to use) and give her Mirror Image, Stoneskin, and Protection from Magic Weapons. She is now difficult to kill with physical attacks.

Star Ocean 3: I haven't played this game (though I own it), and this setup is only available late game, but there is a way to turn Sophia into a tank. First, there is an ability that converts HP damage to MP damage, making her low HP irrelevant. (For those unfamiliar with the game, some attacks do MP damage, and having MP reduced to 0 causes death.) Add to that an ability that boosts max MP by 40% and she can tank hits that would normally do 99999 HP damage. Create a weapon for her that regenerates MP (and the regeneration is percentage based, so high max MP increases the regen) and you now have a character who is very difficult for the enemy to kill, and she's a *mage*, of all things.

I suppose it depends on the RPG in question, but I'll assume we're talking a solo crpg of some kind and not a tabletop D&D game.

I avoid the obvious choices like a Fighter or a Wizard who deal in direct in-your-face damage. I like the non-standard type of character, so when playing Arcanum for the very first time, I went all-out for summoning spells & maxxing out my charisma...which resulted in a small army of followers to do my fighting for me by end game. I was a Human for this character.

If that's not an option, I like going Rogue...sneaking around & swiping stuff, only killing when I really have to. I'm not fussy about this character, I'll typically choose something small like a Halfling or a Gnome or a smallish (in my mind) Human if that's all the game offers.