1. Doesn't make a difference to me as long as difficulty curve is designed well.
2. Sounds interesting, but hard to say without really seeing how it'd work. Can you flesh it out a bit more?
To give an example of character creation, I'll use Fantasy Hero since it's what I know.
Player decides that he wants to have his character be an Elf, so he picks the Elf package.
Cost Ability
4 |+2 DEX
2 |+2 INT
5 |+1 AV *Attack Value (To Hit)
5 |+1 DV *Defensive Value
4 |Elven Swiftness: Running +4m
2 |Elven Eyes: +1 Sight Group PER
Total Cost Of Template Abilities: 22
Due to the cheapness of the package we'll give the player another 18 points to customize the stats which brings the total to 40 points spent.
Now the player decides that the background is a criminal underworld culture, so he picks that. *note that not all the skills may be in the game so the package will look different.
Cost Ability
1 |+1 INT
1 |+1 PRE
6 |6 points’ worth of Skills from the following list:
|Bribery, Conversation, Forgery, Gambling, Lockpicking,
|Persuasion, Security Systems, Charm,
|Sleight Of Hand, Stealth, Streetwise, Trading, any
|Background Skill
2 |WFs (2 points’ worth)
4 |Contacts (4 points’ worth; player’s choice)
Total Cost Of Template Abilities: 14
We can give him an additional 6 points to add more skills or increase the ones he gets from the background he selected. The total for the background will be 20 points.
Next step is picking profession/class archetype, so he decides that he wants an Assassin.
ASSASSIN TEMPLATE
Cost Ability
7 |Stealth (DEX Roll +2)
5 |Streetwise (PRE Roll +1)
5 |WF: Common Melee Weapons, Common
|Missile Weapons, Garrote
20| 20 points’ worth of Skills and Perks from the
|following list:
|Acrobatics, Acting, Breakfall, Bribery,
|Bureaucratics, Climbing, Combat Skill
|Levels, Concealment, Contortionist,
|Cramming, Deduction, Defense
|Maneuver, Disguise, Fast Draw, High
|Society, Interrogation, Lipreading,
|Literacy, Lockpicking, Mimicry, Penalty
|Skill Levels, PS: Brew Poison, Rapid
|Attack, Security Systems, Shadowing,
|Sleight Of Hand, Two-Weapon Fighting,
|Ventriloquism, Weapon Familiarity, any
|Background Skill, Well-Connected,
|/Contact
Total Cost Of Template Abilities: 37
We'll give him 13 points to spend on additional skills or increase the current ones. The Assassin will cost 50 points and bring the total up to 110 points spent.