GGMania: What options will players have in terms of the starting character? How will the character development system work?

Swen Vincke: In Riftrunner, we don't use the selection anymore of Warrior, Wizard or Survivor. This time it's total generic. And contrary to Divinity 1, all characters can now sneak and execute whirlwind attacks. It's not limited to specific classes anymore.
You start as a level 1 character - the soulforging, which you go through at the beginning of the game, weakens you significantly and strips you of your powers. We toyed around with the idea of letting you start with special powers and higher level values at start-up but decided that that would hinder the accessibility of the game. It's far better if you learn things gradually than if you have them all thrown at you immediately. Special feats need to be learnt through the game.
Players can customize their body type (starving, gravitationally challenged, hormone crazy etc.), skin/hair color types, facial looks and gender. You can also play as a child. Since characters are 3D this time you'll see the avatars represent what you're wearing almost perfectly.
As for how it exactly works, we're preparing a special feature around that so I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise by explaining it all here. Some parts of it are pretty different from Divinity 1 but there are good reasons for that. I'm quite sure most people will like it a lot.