4) Full Custom party start for solo play
Still nothing on this. There are a few workarounds. The one I used is for my buddies to join my new game, make the exact character I ask for and then I am set. I just did this using my Wife's account to make a companion for my Paladin.
As long as your comp can handle it, mine gets a bit of lag but still works fine, just open 2,3 or 4 instances in windowed mode and connect in LAN, once they are all in the nautiloid do a save and log out all but the lobby creator, full custom party done.