Players are free to develop in the areas they choose. Certain races will be more adept at different types of skills based on their base stats. Stats play an absolutely crucial role in this game. Stats go up according to your base stats each time you level. Skills go up as you practice them AND have no caps.
Items are self-explanatory.
All spells are item based. Just as a warrior would get a new sword with better stats a wizard can get a new wand or ring with a better castable spell. Most spells will be on rings and you will be able to equip up to 10 rings. This allows for complete customization of controls. Players who don't want to mess around with the somewhat tedious process of assigning buttons to commands and so forth will be given several different default control setups to choose from.