We are going to work very hard to properly balance melee combat. I have had the same sort of problems with previous games not allowing melee characters to do the amount of damage that they should be able to. Not planned at this time. There has been some questions in the chat of whether or not Dragons could side with demons or angels. Though I don't see why they would bother.
Any character can technically achieve any alignment through their actions.
This means that Demons can become lawful good, and Angels can become chaotic evil - however these characters will be extremely hard to play since they will be hunted and cast out of their protective circles. We will be writing a custom weather system for the world of Istaria. This is a feature that we are planning on incorporating. And yes, through seasons, weather will be hotter or colder depending on the climate. Or to see something along the lines of a T-Rex hunt down a farmers horse for a meal.