OO! I'd totally read a book about the first type. HEY! It's like Darkstalker! Kinda.

Also, SD, to answer your question, I try to put myself in the charrie's shoes. However, this can get difficult in a heated argument, when you're jumping back and forth between views ... Yea, totally not helping here, I know.

I didn't think so many people would appreciate this thread! Thank you all! :)

There are too many comments for me to address them all individually just now, but I'm going to try to do a sort of blanket answer and see if that accomplishes anything. My advice might not be so good, but I'm going to attempt it, regardless:

The depth and intricacy of your characters largely depends on your writing style, the type of story you're creating, the amount of characters in that story, and the overall mood. So it will sort of vary from person to person. But, whatever kind of story you're writing, it is important to get to know your characters very, very well. 

How you go about doing this will likely also vary. What I like to do is to take personality traits from myself, and the people around me. Mix and match. Is there a quality about someone you know that you just can't stand? Use it. It's good practice to incorporate real personalities into your story-- and you get a chance to look at that attribute you hate in another person from a different angle or new light, which is beneficial for real-life relationships. 

Try to hid a little piece of yourself in every character. It helps you to get to know them, and allows you to sympathize with them more deeply. This can also make you more invested in them.

By 'yourself' I don't mean just your basic personality. All those traits and attributes you wish you had-- toss 'em in the character-mixing pot and see what happens. All those traits and attributes that you're glad you don't-- in they go. All those traits and attributes that you prefer to tell yourself you don't have-- them too. Because chances are, you feel for these assorted characteristics fairly deeply. Even if you haven't actually experienced that personality you wish you had-- you still care about it enough to understand it to some extent, and it's rather fun to personify that coveted or appreciated trait in your fictional creation and watch it there. 

Even if you can't slide yourself into a specific character, there's high chances that you know someone who fits him/her like a glove. So I suppose my point here is that real people are a good place to start when it comes to making your characters come to life.

It's fine, even desirable, to give your character a few contradictory atributes. It makes them interesting. But it's important that these attributes should still make some sort of sense. For instance-- the judge in Agatha Chrisitie's 'And Then There Were None.' An excellent example of a character with contradictory yet humanly plausible traits. But if the character is too incongruous, he or she is no longer realisitic and flattens the overall story.

Alright, I'm going to try a few individual advice-givings after all. Here goes: 

BumbleBuddy-- Democh's conflicting traits, the fact that he is reckless and thoughtless but still a cowardly character, is actually quite plausible. Someone can be brash when it comes to social situations while still lacking the courage and endurance to face his own real fears.  

Cho: I really like Ruineth-- I think she has lots of potential! However, I would say that she closely resemles pretty nearly every other elf character out there just now. Like you said, a basic summing-up hardly does a character justice, and she's great now, but I think that she could be so much more.

The Novelist: When you say that you want your characters to be stereotypical, I think I can see a bit of what you're getting at. That completely ordinary people are actually capable of being completely extraordinary? Or that they already are? Regardless-- this sounds like an excellent story, but remember that 'ordinary' people aren't necessarily all that ordinary. You can make them pretty stereotypical at first, but, in order to get your readers' attention, you might sort of drop hints or promises at the beginning that say that your characters aren't going to be so stereotypical for long. And then perhaps you could begin to slowly unpack them-- stay true to their original 'flat' attributes, but sort of deepen them, and show that those drab characteristics might be mixed from a vast variety of colors. It would sort of be addressing the question 'What makes a person so ordinary-- and is that person really so very ordinary?' I don't know-- but I am excited for this story to be completed, anyhow. :)

Scylla: I think Sheena is fine for the type of story you're writing, but I agree that a little embellishment seldom hurts. It's usually a god idea to completely develop your characters-- by which I mean to create your character so entirely that you know an infinite amount of things about them that will never get any mention in the actual book, but allow you to know them better. Besides-- many of those little details will likely come very much in handy

While I'm thinking about it, I have a few comments to make about fantasy peoples. These are entirely my own opinions and may or may not be of any use or contain any reality:

The world is full of fantasy stories about elves and the like, who, despite their claimed race, are really just humans with pointy ears or special powers or slightly strange emotions. But has anyone ever really stopped to think what being an elf would actually be like? You're not human. You're a completely different way of being alive. Your mind and emotions function on a whole different level. You might even have different values. Imagine for a moment how that would feel. If you were turned into an elf this very moment, you wouldn't simply become dazzlingly beautiful with funny ears. It would be almost as complete a change as though you had been transfigured into a zebra. 

This is probably enough for now. Sorry Admins! :/ 

Thanks Toppelgänger ;D

I'm glad you found that helpful, Cho! :)

That is excellent advice, Bluebird! I find that, once you know your character well enough, you will often know automatically what they would do in any situation-- which makes the writing of their stories much easier.