I searched for something along these lines but nothing relevant popped up.

So, question is same as title: In a medieval fantasy game, what kind of character would you want to play, and why (what defines it, sets it apart)?

Think skills, features, traits, racial benefits and weaknesses, backstory... anything that would be a mechanic for character creation that would be meaningful and attractive.

For example:
Human: (Race) generally thought to be the most familiar to gamers, as well as thought to be more adaptable in their creation than other races in games where the difference between races makes them obvious choices for certain classes. I'm making a classless system, so what differences would that make on race choices that wouldn't be combined with a class build.

Weaponmaster: (Backstory) you've dedicated your life to the study and use of a single weapon type, and taken an oath never to use another weapon, unless it's your bare hands.

Sword Mastery: (Trait) You are a master of swords of any kind, you gain higher accuracy, and maybe a little more lethality, at the cost of inability to use any other kind of weapon. If he does use another weapon, perhaps there would be an accuracy penalty due to his extreme unfamiliarity with them.

Whirling Blades: (Skill) You are adept at swing your sword(s) around you in blinding fashion, hitting any enemies foolish enough to surround you.

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Half-Elf: (Race) You are the progeny of an Elf and a Human. You age slower than humans beyond maturity, but may not live indefinitely as a pure-blooded Elf. Some magic of the Elves runs through your veins, but like a Mule, you are sterile and cannot have children of your own.

Hedge Mage: (Backstory) You gain knowledge of magical spells in advance of other novices, granting you more spells at your disposal. However your natural gifts has its limits, and you cannot seem to master the most powerful arts.

Nature Attunement: (Trait) Elemental spells of Nature and Growth are cast with greater ease, but you take additional damage from Flame, Fire Spells, and Super Heated Environments (volcanoes)

Nature's Balm: (Spell) Removes toxins.
Sudden Growth: (Spell) Causes flora to grow rapidly, can be used to create obstacles and barriers to trap foes or help your allies get away.

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Those are just some thoughts.

If there's already a thread of this kind, point me to it.  

EDIT: In addition to this i'm thinking of replacing things like Alignment with Philosophy. Pardon the names, they are fluff from my setting. Take out the teachers' names and the philosophies could apply to any setting.

Order and Justice: As the great sage Trask once taught, order and justice are important above all things. In your journeys you try to uphold the laws of the land and prevent mayhem by any means necessary. Trask taught that it is better to stop evil where it appears than to give it the chance to act against you.

Peace and Mercy: As the great sage Gisdael’s once taught, mercy and healing are important above all things. In your journeys you try not to deal the first blow, and grant forgiveness to those who ask of it. Gisdael taught that it is better to heal the sick and injured than to raise up arms in battle, but self defense is sometimes necessary.

Free Thinker: As a free thinker, you don’t follow either Trask or Gisdael. You find personal satisfaction in going your own way and don’t actively oppose anyone who does not stand in your way. You aren’t necessarily a vagrant, but you won’t swear fealty to just any lord or king.

Right of Power: Might makes right is your philosophy. You live in fear of being dominated by others so you make sure everyone knows you are the toughest around. As a by product of this belief, you are naturally attracted to powerful people, and will follow them as long as their might goes unchallenged. You may be quick to change sides if it looks like your master may fail, and you owe no true debt of loyalty to any man but yourself.

Conspiracy Theorist: You believe that all the mainstream philosophies and governments are conspirators in a plot to subject the freedom of your kind. You have an inherent distrust of any authority and may be motivated to seek after alternative sources of power and support from unsavory persons or organizations if you think they will help you subvert the current order.

Unprincipled: Your basic philosophy is to serve yourself above others. That’s not to say you’re a bad guy, just a self centered one. During your journeys you do whatever benefits you the most before worrying about what others think or need.

Generally: I like to play scruffy mercenary types. Good with weapons, but not tied to any specific one, or a hard code of honor (soft codes, sure. Like Han Solo a bit. Pragmatic but ultimately good guys).

In a D&D sense I favor medium and light armors and high dexterity, for mobility, and offense over defense (two weapons, or the occasional BIG weapon), rather than full plate and shield stuff.

Bronn from A Game of Thrones tends to be a good match, if a little darker than I favor in tone, though I also liked the Waterdancer (Serio?)... actually, I liked him a bit more due to tone and attitude though he was less the type in technique.

Does that help?

Not sure I understand the objective of this thread but I'll play along.

Whenever I get my grubby little mitts on a new fantasy RPG, the first character I create (assuming non-random character generation), is a fairly simple one: a human fighter with a big honkin' axe.

Race: Human.

Backstory: Mercenary warrior. Maybe he's the second son of an impoverished knightly family. Maybe he's a peasant who got his first taste of battle on some lord's fyrd, and decided to make a career out of it. Maybe he's a mighty-thewed wanderer from the rugged northern marches, raised to fight back frequent incursions by humanoids and worse.

Trait: Very strong and/or built like an ox.

Skill: Splitting skulls open with a big ol' axe; great axe, pollaxe, Danish long axe, you name it.

I'm also a sucker for demon-binding warlocks. It's a dick character to play in most games, but with a more morally ambiguous game (e.g. Stormbringer/Elric) I jump at the chance. You should see how ridiculously happy I am playing an undead warlock in an 8-year-old videogame...

Race: Whatever race holds the most dark eldricht secrets in your campaign. Melnibonéans are the original archetype, of course, but depending on your setting it's dark elves, Atlanteans, undead or even plain old humans.

Backstory: Warlock/Demonologist. A mage whose true calling consists of summoning and binding beings from beyond our physical world, that the unenlightened might call demons.

Trait: Infernal affinity. Adept at summoning demons, binding them to his service and dismissing them when said service is done. Knows every protective ward and circle vs. demons for the same reason physicists don't handle plutonium in their underwear.

Spells: Demon summoning rites, protective wards and circles, perhaps a few offensive and utility spells as the GM deems appropriate (curses, spells that create and/or manipulate darkness and shadows, maybe a couple of fire-based spells etc.)

It does indeed!

I had to look up those GoT references though, i haven't played/read/seen that series yet, so i was unfamiliar with the characters. Looks like a smashing show!

Sellswords, in some campaigns, are the very definition of an adventurer, seeing how some players portray their characters. Not everyone enjoys the restrictions of playing Lawful Stupid. Then again, some people can't handle the freedom of playing Chaotic Neutral. "One more of those, and i'm shifting your alignment to Chaotic Evil"

So, Race notwithstanding, the Backstory would be something relating or leading up to being a Mercenary perhaps? Trait might be some kind of "Jack of all Trades" approach to weaponry. Agility vs Protection would be a matter more for the way the Stats are built i think, and a fitting Skill might be "Dual Wielding". (not something just anyone can do well)

Butcher! Welcome! Glad you could join us.

I noticed you in another thread i didn't post in and i felt like quipping about how old Pierce Brosnan is, but then i remembered just how gray and spotty Sean Connery was in his last Bond film... yeah, i think Brosnan still has it in him.

I think it could be cool to see him as a smooth badguy. Very few Bond villains i've seen thus far are as smooth as Bond while being as handsome. Usually they are smooth and gross. At least the male villains...

Looks like you've got the jist of the thread. Nice addition. We shouldn't forget the basic Fighter type, especially since they often seem to not get enough love from the game devs, D&D for instance, but i guess there's a thread around here somewhere comparing Fighter to Wizard. I need to find that again and subscribe to it.

Incidentally, i tend to do the same thing with Online RPGs, make straight up warriors first thing. I figure, if the Warrior isn't interesting enough to play, the other classes won't be either. Could be wrong there, but in a game that is mostly killing and grinding...

So, how many systems have you tried this with? How many of them yielded a satisfying feel? What made it satisfying, what didn't?

I'm not sure i'd actually want to play it, but i'd be keen to see something along these lines:

Merchant: (Backstory) you've spent several years dealing with vendors, investors, salesmen, and know about advertisement, supply and demand. You also have a bit of a reputation as a merchant yourself and may more easily buy or sell things at a good price.

Fast Talker: (Trait) you've the gift of gab. You can out talk just about anyone, it doesn't matter that you're right, it just matters that you can keep talking till they agree with you. This may drive some people to avoid you though.

Appraisal: (Skill) you've got a trained eye for the value of things, and can even tell if an object has any special properties.

Race can be whatever you want it to be, whether it fits a given System Rules or not is irrelevant, make it flavorful, give it strengths and weaknesses (ok, one of each at least). I am compiling opinion for my own game development, and i want to see what people are interested in playing so i have an idea of what should be in my game.