A few select responses:
(2) That's amusing. In general, we can't expect the developers to account for EVERY possible combination of player actions - though Larian is ambitious in this regard. Non-combatant characters cowering seems like a natural response, but you would think that goblins would be aggressive toward the others. I assume (though I'm not sure) that there's some underlying 'faction' mechanic at play in some ways, which ought to create immediate combat between certain groups.
(3) I agree. Capping it at Level 4 seriously skews the difficulty of encounters. There are certain fights that are REALLY tough with Level 4 characters. But on the other hand, the fact that all these fights are winnable with level 4 characters (I mean, I feel like there are one or two that SHOULDN'T be winnable, but I've pulled them off) makes me think that there will need to be a lot of calibration for difficulty once the level cap is removed.
(5) I don't have a particular objection to what IS there - making Elves look like Orlando Bloom is nothing unusual, but there actually IS good detail in the Githyanki - the cat eyes are a nice touch. Trying to make races look really alien makes it much harder to create authentic expressions and interactions. However, I'm surprised by how limited the character creation options are - for the reasons Niara notes. I'm semi-expecting that to improve in further development. If the final version looks much like the current one, it'd be the most limited character creation system I've seen in a while.
