Most classic RPGs have lots of combat. What I don’t see mentioned here so far is Neverwinter Nights. Especially the first expansion of the second game. Mask of the Betrayer. Lots of combat of course, but a story that your behaviour has an impact on. Search for a cookie cutter build, lower the difficulty. You can skip through the combat parts quickly that way, if you don’t like them.

Also mentioning Planescape Torment again because it’s weird and not so combat focused.

The Pillars of Eternity games provide some of what you’re looking for, as they’re heavily inspired by the old Baldur’s Gate games (which were themselves built on D&D).

Baldurs Gate would be just for you then. You can find 2 for real cheap, or wait for BG3 to release in…. Days? Weeks? Soon.

IMO WoW is not a good game at all if you are looking for “role playing”. It’s a multiplayer online game and all the quests boil down to simple linear stories. There is very little player choice, and the other humans playing the game make it impossible to suspend your disbelief and actually imagine your character as a real person in the game world.

I would recommend Dragon Age: Origins. BioWare games in general have always been great at letting you build a character where role playing choices matter a lot. Other games I would recommend for RPGs with a capital R and a capital P:

Tyranny (choices matter a lot in this one. There are basically 4 or 5 distinct stories in the game depending on choices you make)

Fallout New Vegas (any of the fallout games are good, but this one has the best writing IMO)

Mass Effect Legendary Edition (play all three in order)

Pillars of Eternity 2

Pathfinder (Kingmaker or Wrath of the Righteous)

Divinity Original Sin 2

Baldur’s Gate 3 (Early access right now but should be releasing soon)

If price is an issue, my top recommendations are definitely Dragon Age Origins and Fallout New Vegas

The Baldur’s Gate series has some roleplaying involved in that while the story is fairly scripted your characters behaviour affects the outcomes of various events (with some unique trees branching off). Additionally, the more your actions diverge from the team’s alignments the greater the odds members will outright leave.

It’s not perfect, but you really won’t get that from any game without multiplayer involvement. In the end almost all roleplaying in electronic games can be boiled down to simply making multiple-choice decisions that result in a predictable chain of consequences/output.

Mass Effect is similar to Baldur’s Gate in this respect though much more dialogue driven. Fallout Series is another that you might like too.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is for you!

Larian did an incredible job with that game and it’s truly a masterpiece. If you have friends, you can play online co-op and have a blast.

And if you have a SO, make sure to try it out as well! The split screen implementation for this game is amazing, and the controller support is second to none.
In fact, I switched from M+K to the controller just because it was so much better.

By the time you’re done, Larian Studio’s Baldur’s Gate 3 will have been released (Aug 3rd), and it seems it’s going to 1-up every other RPG out there by a mile!

I hope they can implement the same controller scheme and split screen system with BG3 as well, since it’s so much better for couch co-op.

The cryptic mmos are micro transaction based but its a mix of costuming and pay to get powerful fast. Light grinding over time will give you a top tier character. Role playing is not needed to play the games but they all have guilds of some sort that do it you just have to find one. The three games they have run a good gambit of world types. superhero, future high tech (startrek specifically), and sword&sorcery (neverwinter). One note is they have lots of customization for abilities but also chacter look. So much so that folks roleplay other franchises on startrek (starwars, stargate, doctor who) and like verything in champions as its costume options are insanely varied (its pretty much in maintenance mode but costumes are the things regularly added). All the games are relatively easy to play if you build your character well but neverwinter is a bit more “get gud” and maybe the most pay for power.

Lord of the rings online. Yes it’s old, but it’s still a beautiful game. You customize your race, appearance, class, etc. You can play solo or join a kinship (guild.) Some kinships are roleplaying exclusively, some are not. I’ve found the community to be more welcoming and friendly than other MMOs. There are multiple servers with different countries of origin and some servers have more roleplaying too. Check out lotro-wiki.com if you’re interested.

Thanks for all the suggestions! Lots of stuff for me to try out.

Maybe Wartales would work for you.

https://wartales.net

It’s a really good RPG, lots of content and customization so every game is different, your choices matter, and supports up to 4-player co-op. It’s fairly similar to TTRPGs in a lot of ways.

Consider Disco Elysium.

Baldurs Gate 3 comes out August 3rd on PC, Sept for consoles. It’s right up your alley. Early access is going on still if you want to try it. You can fully flesh out your character in pretty much every way. 10/10 would recommend.

The original deus ex

Try Crusader Kings 3. Very mod friendly and a lot potential for lore building.

This is a bit of a different tack to the other suggestions, but you could look at Crusader Kings. It’s a strategy game, but instead of playing as a country or similar, you play as specific person. When that person dies, you play as their heir, in whatever situation you left for them. There’s less depth to some of the role playing systems than there would be in an RPG, but on the other hand it has thousands of characters dynamically simulated to do their own things, so stories emerge from that instead. 2 and 3 are both solid, 2 has a bit of a steeper learning curve and isn’t as well balanced as 3 but it is cheaper and has more systems expanded through DLC if you do get in to it