I keep thinking on how they could still use a kind of physical level because I love the physical levels (not necesarily the system we have in place now). I love that I can be the same class and rank as someone else and NOT be the exact same as them.

So what I was thinking is change the physical level system to a upgrade system. You get exp for fighting just like before, but now it just goes into a pool of points that you then spend on upgrading things like Dexterity or more damage with fire element attacks the crafting stats (cant remember their names) and so on. And as you perchace more of one thing the more expensive it gets.

Also if they decided to add more things to the game like jumping and climbing and so on they could also make it so that they could also be upgraded and make dungeons that require fast runners, good climbers, and lock picking experts to get through adding another another important part of planning a good party.

Really the ways that they could add to character customization is endless with a system of this kind.