Is OTHER wrong in the post ? POST : I haven't confronted my friend about this yet, because I'm not sure if I'm just being a fucking idiot. This has been going on for a couple years now.

Whenever we start a new campaign, I almost always announce my character first. Then, when my friend announces his, it's always like he's trying to build into the same niche, but *more*. 

For instance, when I announced a buff/healing build witch with a medical background, he immediately announced a hyper-heal specialist cleric. I thought, oh well, a little annoying that I never actually get to do my doctor gimmick, but cleric isn't an unusual choice.

Next, It wasn't so much a mechanical issue; it was "my character is a tiefling from [specific place], where she owns a house". Next thing I know, he's a tiefling that lives down the street from me, despite the fact our characters could quite specifically be from ANYWHERE in the world and didn't have to know each other. And I thought, oh well, no big deal, bit weird that he made himself my neighbour for no reason without discussing it with me, but it's not a problem.

The next campaign, he announced his character before me. I deliberately picked a different niche to avoid that overlap. Unless his character dies, he won't get the opportunity to mimic me.

We're getting ready to play another campaign (we run two at a time, alternating each session), and I announced my character before anyone else. We use some 3rd party mechanics that I won't get into, so I'll phrase it simply: I'm a "spear dancer" rogue-alike with heavy emphasis on social skills, a "face" type character, and being more or less a rogue I'm a skill monkey too.

My friend announces his character and he's... A skill monkey bard with high socials and specialising in spears. Sure, bards have a lot of overlap with rogues. They're CHA mains, so their social skills are high!  But the spear speciality on top really makes me feel like he's muscling me out of my niche! He could be anything, and but he always picks something that's almost the same as me!

He's also on the spectrum, so I don't know if he's doing this deliberately or if I'm just being overly sensitive. But I'd like to just PLAY a character without feeling like I'm competing for my own gimmick for once! Am I the asshole here?