Bearing in mind that I've participated as a "player" as opposed to DM fewer than ten times, on each of those occasions I portrayed a cleric. I'm not sure why, but if I had to guess, I would say that since all of those occasions occurred between 1983 and 1987, I was probably trying to compensate for a catholic schoolkid's guilty conscience on some level.
I don't think it worked. Each of them perished in usual sorts of ways, but with a kind of steadfast, galloping stupidity that still makes me cringe.
So, yeah, ditto, ditto, ditto, etc., etc., as per the answers of my esteemed brethren.