LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures/Characters

There are a grand total of 83 characters that you can choose from, not counting the two customizable characters. Despite the sheer number of characters, each character can be sorted into categories based on their abilities. These abilities are required to let you solve puzzles and access areas.

Note, every character has to be unlocked to get 100% completion.

Indiana Jones
The titular archaeologist needs no introduction. Indiana Jones and his alternate variants are the only characters that can use Indy's signature whip. The whip has a variety of uses, including crossing gaps, pulling at things and disarming enemies. Indiana Jones is featured in every level in the game, so you will use his whip to progress a lot. Another thing unique to Indiana Jones is his phobia of snakes, and Indy will be overwhelmed with fear if you go near one, crippling his movement.

Weapon users
From spears and scimitars to powerful submachine guns, weapon users encompass a broad range of characters. When met as enemies, you can usually obtain their weapons by defeating them, but you usually only get limited uses of it. The advantage of weapon users is that they can use their weapons infinitely. For instance, spearmen can throw as many spears as they can, while pistol wielders have a constant supply of bullets. This ability isn't required to get secret collectables most of the time, they simply let you kill enemies and destroy environmental objects faster. However, some levels do require you to throw bladed weapons to cut ropes, but this situation rarely arises.

Explosives users
A unique subset of weapon users are the characters that wield explosives. There are two kinds of explosives users in the game: grenade officers and bazooka troopers. Grenades act like thrown weapons while bazookas behave more like guns, but you can aim with both of them. Explosives are brutal and dangerous weapons. They unleash a shockwave whenever they explode, which destroys nearby objects and kills any non-boss characters in one hit, including you! The other use of explosives is to blow open objects that can't be destroyed with fists, which are glass and sparkling silvery metal.

Female characters
In the male-dominated field of early 20th century archaeology, it is pretty uncommon to run into women while adventuring. These characters are more nimble and agile; they sacrifice their double jump for a single high jump, which not only gives them extra airtime like a double jump but also lets them reach high ledges other characters can't get to. Willie, the woman Indy encounters during The Temple of Doom, has an additional ability. She can scream at the resonant frequency of glass, letting her destroy glass objects and containers by yelling in their vicinity. Unfortunately, you won't get to use this ability a lot, since explosives can destroy glass just as well.

Short characters
Some characters, mostly children, have shorter height than normal. This pint-sized body lets them crawl through chutes in the wall with ease, letting them reach higher ledges or inaccessible areas connected back to the main level with chutes.

Diggers
Excavating things is one of the primary tasks of archaeology, so a shovel often comes in handy. Diggers are characters that always carry shovels, which lets them unearth objects buried in the ground. There is usually a colorful shining spot on the ground where something is buried, so it's not hard to seek them out. Diggers can also use their shovels as weapons, which while slower can send enemies flying with a powerful strike.

Mechanic
A wrench is to a mechanic as a shovel is to a digger. Mechanics always carry a wrench, so you can count on them to be able to fix any inoperable and malfunctioning machinery. These broken machines are usually a bright blue and have spars coming out from them. Like shovels, wrenches are also melee weapons, but their hit detection is really strange, making mechanics worse fighters than bare-handed characters.

Scholars
Scholars are characters that have studied ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, carrying a blue book that lets them decipher hieroglyph panels. You can find these panels in many places, from Indy's office to the Temple of the Holy Grail. Solving hieroglyph panels requires you to play a basic memory game. 4 of 9 smaller panels will flash in a sequence, and you must recreate the four flashes in the correct order. If you fail, you'll simply see the pattern repeat and get a chance to try again.

Enemy disguise
Even in military strongholds, the soldiers that guard important entrances are pretty dumb. If you knock on their window in a plain outfit, they'll usually summon other soldiers to attack you. However, by playing as an enemy soldier or even wearing their caps, you can fool the guard into unlocking whatever entrance you need to pass through. You can't fool actual soldiers and officers with your disguise, unfortunately.

Thuggees
Thuggees are similar to characters with enemy disguises in that you can emulate their abilities by picking up their headgear. Thuggees usually wear turbans on their heads. They are able to pray to miniature Thuggee statues erected all over the world, which usually causes the area nearby to change.

Phobias
Some characters have traits with negative effects called phobias. When confronted with the creature they are scared of, the character in question will be nearly paralyzed with fear, greatly restricting their movement. A good example of this is Indy's severe phobia of snakes. Creatures that trigger phobias are usually placed as obstacles, which often require you to bypass or clear them with another character.