Difficulty Level

An idea I liked from Shaiya (and probably a few other games have it) is the concept of Easy/Normal/Hard characters. Easy characters are level-capped at 30, gain XP twice as fast, but don't have access to certain skills. Hard characters earn XP slower but gained more points from leveling. They have an Ultimate mode too where death is permanent if you're not ressurected withing 3 minutes of dying. Hard mode was unlocked only after you reached level 50 in Normal mode, and Ultimate mode was unlocked only after you reached level 50 in Hard mode.

For a system based entirely on skills, there would be a lot of tweaking to this concept, but I think the idea is a good one. Easy mode lets people unfamiliar with the game (or MMORPGs as a whole) learn it without a lot of grind. Hard mode gains a bonus in ability at the expense of difficulty and time.

In DA I thought of this as Easy (no PvP or RvR, cannot progress past Journeyman), Normal (RvR but no PvP, cannot progress past Immortal), and Hard (full PvP, full shot at divinity).