Class sub-variants?

[:1]Hi, new here. Been lurking for quite some time though. Recently got sucked back into the whole diablo craze and was directed to this site by a friend.

I was thinking - while there may only be 5 classes offered initially (or so we are told), what about class variants which modify an aspect of the class itself? This could allow for more variety.

I will admit that it was inspired somewhat by dnd.

For example, we know that there will be an option to play the male or female version of any class. What if Blizzard went one step further, and made each somewhat different in terms of abilities?

The female wizard's backstory was described as her being undisciplined, encouraging her to delve into more "dangerous" magics such as time manipulation. What if the players choosing the male wizard option unlocked the Vizjerei instead? They would be more reserved in their studies.

Both wizards would be able to access the lightning and cold spells. But the female wizard gets to select those fancy time-based spells to boost, while the male wizard eschews them in favour of the original fire-based spells such as firebolt/fireball we all know and love? Blizzard could release additional variants, each substituting one branch of spells for another. Or offering a new benefit at the expense of another tradeoff/drawback.

Or heck, they could even go one step further. Maybe have some specialist variant. You would only be able to invest in spells belonging to one element (chosen at the time of character generation), but all spells from that element would be consequently more powerful (eg: you may be treated as being 1 skill rank higher, gain additional resistance vs that element, spells have an extra rider-on effect etc).

Same applies for the other classes. We are told that the male barbarian is older and more hardened, while the female barb is younger and more eager to prove her mettle. Maybe the male barb is no longer as hale and hearty due to his age, but he has the benefit of more combat experience and wisdom. Meanwhile, the female barb is more headstrong and naive, but has the advantage of youth and vigour. Might this translate into mechanical differences in-game?

Your thoughts and ideas? Don't hesitate to shoot it down if you think it is worthless? |||Interesting idea. There is something similar in both Mass Effect 1 and 2 (for examples that I personally know). I would play Diablo III if this was implemented, but Blizzard probably wouldn't.|||I had an idea a bit back of expansion characters being literally expansions of the current classes where you have a choice of 2 career paths(I got idea from the PSP version of Dungeonsiege)you dont get many extra skills but the skills are significant,hard to implement though since how do you have an advanced version of them.

As to your idea the male/female bias might not be liked by people who like to only play their own gender but thats all I see a problem with as variety is the spice of life so its always welcome just the worthwhile of implementing it for the developers.|||Why limit these choices to gender or "prestige classes" when they can just implement specializations as skills (which are exclusive of each other)

Honestly, there might come a point where I don't want to spend another 20 hours just to try out "Time Magic" by starting a Female Wizard when an easier option is to just respec my Male Wizard and choosing another specialization. Especially when the difference is something incredibly tiny like 1 or 2 skills or +10% to whatever weapon.