Without characters, there would be no game. Player characters drive the story, while nonplayer characters populate the rest of the environment. From this spot, there are several subjects pertinent to PCs (and maybe NPCs, one day).

Races are the first stop, and to many, the most important. You are what you are, say they, a product of blood and birth.

Classes are the most defining trait of a character. They determine what a PC can do, and, just as importantly, what she cannot do. New! Take a gander at the new core class--the mage!

Coming are alterations to the base classes, things like handling metamagic feats for sorcerers and alternative paladin classes that reflect the natures of their gods.

Prestige classes help refine a character, focusing his career path in a particular direction. With great achievement comes great power, and since PrCs are only taken some time into an adventurer's career, they bring such power...

Factions are groups of people who hold to like beliefs. "Philosophers with clubs" in any sense of the term, these planar notables take belief and make it real. Bit of a crossover here, as planar faction prestige classes are covered in this section, not under PrCs.