1. No preference on what age we're playing.

2. Not a fan of dice rolling combat myself, but if it has to be done, I'm not against it either. 

3. Leave some of those spots open. Maybe the ranks could be tied to a house, rather than individual? That way you could introduce characters from that group later on and ascend/descend in the ranks when plot demands it. Something like that.

3. A mix between the two is my general preference.   

4. None at the moment, one of them regarding talents already got answered. But, I'll let you know what comes to mind. Thinking of making a hammer knight to bonk people.

My fav character has to be Buggy D. Clown from One Piece.