Is 19 characters too many?

Uh, yeah.

Some characters only have a few lines so far. But, I mean, you know.

Also, I am writing the second half of a book I started last year at nano, so the characters are spread out over 200+ pages.

Nineteen characters in the WHOLE book? It's fine, kind of like how the only characters you ever saw in Ed, Edd & Eddy were the same 12 kids. But nineteen principal characters of equal importance? You'd have to work pretty hard for it to not be confusing. Seven is the absolute maximum main characters you should have, I've read.

I don't think 19 is too many. I'm writing a trilogy with who knows how many characters. It can be confusing for the author, but it works. I've read some books with some very large casts. I would recommend honing in on a smaller group, though, just because it can get very crazy trying to extremely develop everyone.

My last year's NaNovel had about that many characters of any real importance.

Really, it depends on the size and scope of the work. My NaNovel was also 170k words. (no I didn't finish all 170k in November - I wish!) If it's a large scope with a lot of things happening you may be hard pressed to minimize characters.

Some works are huge epics with large casts; others are smaller in focus with as little as one character. I don't think there's a discrete number at which you have "too many" characters, because I think the limit of how many characters makes it confusing changes based on what I've said.

The number of characters isn't relevant, so much as the number of _important_ characters.

You imply that some of your 19 are just bit players, relevant to one scene or something. Don't worry about those.

Try to limit yourself to at most 3 major characters, though--ones whose goals and motivations we're aware of and/or concerned about. More than that is hard to handle for writers who are still honing their craft. And, no offense, I have to assume that's you because otherwise you would likely not have asked the question. :)

Plenty of works have loads and loads of characters.

I think my characters home village alone has more character's than 19.

I think 4 is enough- but you can have as many as you want

No, 19 isn't too many. My reasoning is that's how many I have this year.

Depends upon whether you mean main or just characters. Main characters and it's definitely too many, but characters in general and it's too few!

That many main characters is too hard to keep track of and some will probably get lost eventually. I would limit the important characters to no more than five. Regular characters pop up everywhere, and unless you character lives in the middle of nowhere, much more than 19 would pop up.

Let's see. 2011 is a sequel to my 2007 Nano, but my cast of characters is as follows:

MC and other protagonists with primary presence/roles in this story arc:
Skiro, Kitan, Hiran, Nirae, Sakan

Other characters with noticeable prominence in this story arc:
Rava, Sevann, Lutra
(unnamed) male and female antagonists

Other named characters
(from 2007 Nano) Surai, Kal, Naram, Raiak, Velaar, Zorra and Zura
(new) Astri

I wish I had 19 characters. It's hard finding ones to kill off. Then I have to replace them. It's a pain. I realize I sound like a psycho. I'm used to it.

19? that IS a lot, but I believe there are NO LIMITS!
If they're all MC's, are they together, or separated in subplots and whatnot.
I don't think 19 is too many

I think it really depends. If the work is going to be long, like say a trilogy or a series, then 19 major-ish characters would be fine. If it was a stand alone novel of say 400 pages and there were 19 major-ish characters, then that would become confusing. And, if we're talking major-ish characters, you may have to work hard to establish individual voices for them that way readers don't get confused.

If we're talking only 19 characters total in the story, then that is fine too.

Just an idea that you could try to give the characters distinctive, fairly easily-remembered names, and a good ratio of men and women. I don't think it would be too hard then. But 19 people named Rob, Bob, Tom, Thom, Thomas, Robert and so on, and I'll probably quit.