The World
Your class decides how you solve a room; your race decides what you can take and what you can see. Both are chosen at character creation and both are permanent, so it is worth a minute's thought.
hit dice 1D10 · prefers long blades
Lethal with any weapon and any armour, relying on strength and endurance instead of magic. Advances by accumulating raw combat ability - enhanced damage, a second attack and then a third - plus battlefield skills like rescue, disarm and a war cry that steadies allies.
The recommended start. A Human Fighter has the biggest health pool in the game and the most forgiving playstyle.
hit dice 1D8 · prefers short blades
Fights with speed and leverage rather than force, taking the opening an opponent did not mean to give. The only class that can pick a lock, and already practised at it. Their riposte arrives earlier than anyone else's, turning a parried blow straight back on the attacker.
For players who would rather find the way in than break it down.
hit dice 1D4 · prefers staff
Trades armour and endurance for the most destructive magic in the realms. Starts with magic missile and grows into burning hands, fireball and haste, with invisibility and detect invisibility for reaching places they are not wanted.
Everything costs mana, and a mage who runs out is in real trouble. Rewards watching your resources and picking your fights.
hit dice 1D8 · prefers hammer
Healer and protector who goes to war with hammer and staff. Mends wounds from the first level, later curing blindness, blessing companions and raising a sanctuary that halves the damage its subject takes. Can strike too, with harm.
The best natural healing in the realms, and the reason a party stays standing longer than it has any right to.
hit dice 1D6 · prefers unarmed
Academic researchers who wield the power of knowledge. The only class that can both heal and destroy - never as well as a cleric or a mage, but well enough to stand alone - and the only one that can poison a foe.
Away from a fight, the most useful person in the realms: unmatched lore, a head start in crafting, and a haggler's tongue.
Race bonuses are applied once, at creation. They are not re-applied later, so a race is a decision about the character you are making rather than a running modifier.
+1 Strength, +2 Constitution
Stout mountain folk of iron will and iron beards. Emberhold is theirs, and they mean to keep it. Born underground, and it shows in what they can take - and in being able to see without a light source.
Dexterity and Intelligence
Graceful and long-lived, drawn to the vale's woods and its old stories. Sees in the dark.
Balanced
Adaptable settlers, found wherever there is trade to be done and trouble to be had. No weaknesses to plan around, which is exactly why they are the easiest first character.
Dexterity
Scrawny, cunning raiders of the Gnarlfang tribe. Not welcome in Emberhold, which is a fact you will feel.
Strength
Brutish warmongers who lead where goblins swarm. Gruk is the worst of them.