For some obvious reasons I was under first impressions that male / female variation is mainly a gender influenced dialog path, which turned out to be very true somehow; while other than gender dialog, such as gender related reactions and choices was never found.
On the other hand, that first impression included the idea that by selecting a different class we automatically choose a difficulty level.
Choosing a warrior = Easy.
Choosing a mage = Normal.
Choosing a survivor = difficult
This is not too far from being a fact as I read from what Raze had posted on the differences on combat mathematics. Yet by selecting a difficulty level and combining, we get 9 difficulty levels altogether, with unclear evaluation between an easy-survivor and a difficult-warrior while a difficult-survivor is the most challenging and an easy-warrior is for beginners.
Thus, those choices were not intended to mangle with the make-it-as-you-go story line but rather as a fixed difficulty level ONLY.
The locked doors, which I mentioned are members of a set of objects that include an Orcish barricade and a treasure cave wall. Those objects prevent the player from accessing an area if some conditions were not met.
It is fine to have it that way but it hurts the game rules and lowers its competitive rank among other games.
Cheers.
