I mean, we don't *need* to be able to choose new hotbar skills.. we can always just make do with the ones we get through presets and then use the gold we make to buy new skills upon reaching the city, but being able to customize our character with the skills we prefer from the start is, well.. preferable.
I agree, but Grodit (the OP) seems to be a new player, so i assumed he wanted to know how he can create a custom character in the current build. Just wanted to point out to him that the two missing options (starting skills, starting equipment) don't last for long, so them being preset is not as bad as it might seem at first. That being said, the more customization the better.