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Oe - Cleric

Why? Because my first DM/GM let me play, as the rules clearly allowed, a young dragon. As a cleric. A chaotic good cleric, though I seem to remember this was before "good, evil, and neutral" were added to the alignments.

Y'see, it was that ability to be anything and try to do anything (whether or not the character was successful) which made it that much fun. And I got to make up my own diety and everything. (George, patron god of reptiles.)

3.0/3.5 The cleric made you a very popular person and had a very decent chance at holding the line when it all hit the fan.


4.0 The warlord I never played one myself but I always knew some crazy sliding and basic attack goodness was on it's way whenever I saw one.


The Slayer was a simple as sin. But sometimes it was fun to play a smash and bash and repeat fighter. Especially if a warlord was around.


The Berserker was gloriously flexible as a tank or a striker.        

1e - Ranger, pretty handily. Wasn't as of yet shackled to dual-wielding for melee, did all the badass Ranger things you'd expect from that class, was very sturdy from Lv. 1.

I also liked 1e's Bard, except for the triple-classing requirements to enter that class. Which, unfortunately, was a pretty big part of the class.  

2e - Justifier (Ranger kit), hands down. The ultimate commando in that game as far as martial-type characters went. Had the Fighter's Weapon Specialization, stealthed better than the standard Ranger, could fight decently unarmed, deal a crapload of damage when attacking alongside an animal companion, created surprise rounds for the party with minimum fuss.

3.5 - I liked all three ToB classes, but the Warblade was my favorite out of those. Best maneuver recovery mechanic of the ToB classes, had the full BAB, and you could make him anything from the prototypical 4e Taclord (White Raven school) to a one-man wrecking crew with the likes of Iron Heart, Tiger Claw and Diamond Mind schools.

4e - Bard. First time since 1e I approved of the flavor, and the only time I ever approved 100% of its execution. Love having a movement-focused Leader class who can also enable some attacks, with a healthy dose of battlefield control and build versatility (from unlimited multiclassing) on the side. I love Paladin, Warlord and Ranger about as much, though.

BECMI/Rules Cyclopedia, and similar: Fighter - especially when the weapon mastery system is being used as it scaled your attack bonuses and damage dice. Really let me feel like I could take a two-handed sword to a dragon and (so long as I had some protection from the breath weapon) kick the bugger's teeth in.

1st & 2nd Edition: Mage - especially specialist wizards in 2e and a wizard customized with the Player's Option books so that he had access to healing spells.

3.x Edition: Wizard - specifically a specialist that gave up enchantment & necromancy and specialized in either evocation or transmutation.

4th Edition Slayer - it showed up at a perfect moment when I was worn out on the AEDU style classes and reminded me a lot of the BECMI fighter I used to play.

In all editions mentioned above, the other class (Wizard if I said Fighter, Fighter if I said Wizard) was a close 2nd favorite at worst, and occassionally the more favored... they have pretty well solidified now that I haven't played any of those games in some time... but so far with Pathfinder, which I have been playing a while now, it seems that Magus (a base class that provides a certain sort of fighter/wizard play) is my favorite.