I generally come up with all sorts of characters in sense of class and play mechanics, and generally look towards a cool concept with an interesting play mechanic.

When it comes to races, I don't really know too much about overly exotic ones so I generally end up with either human, halfling, gnome, dwarf or Mongrelfolk. But generally there's little preference. I really like the Mongrelfolk though... And the dwarf, too. Really, they're all fine, and the Illithid are the best.

Alignment is usually ranging between Neutral good and Chaotic Evil. Really, just about anything with the exception of Lawful Good. Not a big fan of the entire alignment system.

Mechanics-wise, I generally like playing characters that have more then one single thing they can do and at the same time do not require you to run a freaking ledger. Being a wizard really annoys me, even though I'm currently playing one.

So Rogue, ToB classes, Bard, and all that kind of thing, I adore. Wizards, not too much but they're okay too. Druids, I like the animal companion.

I usually just end up creating a cool character concept and then going from there. Generally I don't get to play it out too much, my groups have been rather silly lately, with different kind of roleplaying in mind. Aw well.