I think for D3 Blizzard needs to "look around" and see what is working for other industry RPG games.
If you want to see how you can cross over 2 classes successfully to build a character all you need do is look at TQ....
If you want to see how to make character generation have an insane amount of choice then look at NWN...
Personally the list could go on however I think it might be time to develop a character building system that is instead of gender limiting or class limiting or race limiting a system that is very open.
What I am meaning is have a very large pool of skills/spells that characters can chose from when ever they level up. Maybe something where as to meet certain requirements for each spell or skill you need to have say 50 intelligence to be able to chose the Lightning spell tree or 50 strength to chose the 2 weapon skill tree or 50 dexterity to be able to chose the Rapid shot tree etc.
Each spell/skill should be upgradeable depending on one of 2 factors maybe an attribute requirement and/or level requirement (not class/race/gender req.).
You would have skill points along with attribute points at each level still but ultimately an open type of character that may be e.g. skilled in the bow but also cast a limited range of spells and handy with the dagger. A level cap would still be required in this sense but I would imagine you could go pretty high.
Another idea would be to have maybe the skills/spells written on ancient learning scrolls or the like so basically you actually have to kill creatures (potentially with simple weaponry or limited combat ability at first) before you get the opportunity to find a drop that gives you that skill/spell to learn? Obviously these skills/spells would enable people to learn and level
Then you may find people trading ancient scrolls with skills/spells also.
Gender could possibly be chosen at the start or race could be chosen at the start - maybe give a little bit of variation in base attributes dependent on race and gender but no limitation on what skills/spells gender or race type can learn.
All and all it would make for a much more open character type.
Thats my thoughts anyways.
