I don't like games that leveling up and taking one path over another has very little impact on combat and your experience. I also love when the game really diverges as you level up and you can spend countless hours stressing over paths you take in skill trees and trying to find a way to 'break' the game.
I still pop in Icewind Dale from time to time and spend an hour or so creating characters. I love games that can take hours trying to roll the perfect team. I guess it goes back to playing D&D as a kid, but part of my favorite thing about any RPG is the character creation (not the way they look but the stats) and the leveling up of characters.
