Buffy Summers
Buffy's the Slayer, a girl chosen by fate to battle evil forces. She fall in love with vampire Angel who leaves her because they could never have a normal life together. She meets then Riley and has a relationship with him but he leaves Sunnydale. She receives a sister, Dawn, who's in fact the Key sent to her for protection. In order to do that and to save the world she sacrifies herself, but is resurrected by her friends. She has a sexual relationship with vampire Spike until she breaks off, but they continue to work together and she finally respects him.


Willow Rosenberg
Willow is Buffy and Xander's best friend. She's very intelligent and at first helps Buffy searching demons in books and on the internet. Then she becomes interested in magic and helps Buffy with her witch's power. She has a relationship with Oz, until she falls in love with Tara. Her interest in magic turns into an obsession, so Tara leaves her. They see each other again just before Tara is killed by Warren. Willow uses dark magic to get revenge and is saved by Xander. After she returns from England where she has learnt to control her power, she meets Kennedy, a potential slayer, and the two starts dating. In the final fight she's able to create a spell to give all potential slayer their superpowers and is finally connected with good magics.


Xander Harris
Xander is Willow and Buffy's best friend. After trying several jobs, he works as carpenter. He has a relationship with Cordelia but she leaves him. Then he meets Anya, an ex-vengeance demon and they fall in love. He proposes to her but his doubts about their future together cause him to leave her at the altar, even if they are still in love. Even if he hasn't superhuman strength or special knowledge, he is one of the most important of the Scoobies.


Rupert Giles
Giles is an English Watcher, whose job is to train Buffy. Throughout the seasons he becomes a father figure for Buffy, giving her advices for her life as well as for her "supernatural works". He first owns a library, then a magic shop.


Spike
Spike was a great vampire who killed two Slayers, but the Initiative has put a chip in his head so that he can't hurt humans. He needs Buffy for protection and she needs him for his strength. In the fifth season he realises he loves Buffy, but she doesn't share his feeling. When Buffy returns from the dead, she finds in Spike the only person who can understand her and they begins a sexual relationship. When she breaks it off with him, he goes to Africa and gets his soul back. In the final battle he sacrifies himself to destroy the First's army of Turok-Hans.


Anya Jenkins
Anya firt appears as Anyanka, a vengeance demon. She is made mortal after Giles destroyed her power source and has to re-learn how to be an ordinary human. She's in love with Xander, who asks her to marry. She's afraid of bunnies and loves money. She's killed in the episode Chosen.


Tara MacLay
Tara is a witch who is in love with Willow. She's an insecure girl who doesn't feel part of the Scoobies until Buffy says they are a family. She is killed accidentally by Warren in the episode Seeing Red.


Dawn Summers
Dawn appears suddendly in season 5 as Buffy's sister. A monk explain to Buffy that she's the Key, energy who opens a portal between dimensions, sent to her as a sister in order to hide her from Glory. The memories of Dawn's family and friends were changed so that they think she's always lived with them. She becomes a normal girl after Buffy sacrifies herself for her.


Riley Finn
Riley is Buffy's first serious boyfriend after Angel. He worked for the Initiative which was destroyed at the end of the fourth season. He has enhanced strength due to the drugs he was fed, and helps Buffy killing vampires. But when he looses his strength he feels useless and goes to vampires brothel, where vampires feed from him. He leaves Sunnydale when the Government asks him to go fighting demons.


Joyce Summers
Joyce is Buffy and Dawn's mother. She accepts Buffy's activities and continues to consider Dawn as her child even when she learns she isn't. They discover she has a brain tumor and after a successful operation she dies of an aneurysm in The Body.


Ben Wilkinson
Ben is a mortal who shares his body with Glory. He was created as a prison for her but tries to lead a normal life, working as an hospital intern. He first tries to protect Dawn from Glory but decides to assist her when she promises him immortality. He's killed by Giles in the episode The Gift in order to kill Glory.


Glory (Glorificus)
Glory was one of the three goddess who ruled over a hell dimension. As she was the most powerful, the other two forced her to share a body with an human, Ben, created to hold her. She began to control Ben for short periods of time, taking the form of a vain girl who has superhuman strenght. When this happen neither Ben nor Glory can remember each other's actions, and no human who's seen that can remember. In order to maintain her sanity and power, she 'sucks' people's sanity. She wants to find the Key, which is Dawn, to get back in his own dimension. The only way to kill her is to kill Ben, and it's what Giles do in The Gift.

Harmony Kendall
Harmony was a selfish and empty-headed girl, friend of Cordelia, who liked (and still likes) unicorn figurines. She was bitten by a vampire and reappears as one of them. She tries to kill Buffy with the help of her gang of 'minions', but it ends in disaster. She has a sexual relationship with Spike twice, but finally leaves him when it becomes clear he loves Buffy.