I bring glad tidings from the world of Pillars. I played some more with Persephone today, and leveled up twice. So now I can share some things about leveling.
I have already mentioned Abilities and Talents. Every time you level up you get to pick one. On odd numbered levels you get an Ability, so level 1 (when you start the game), level 3, 5, 7, etc... They appear to all be class-specific, and there are not that many to choose from. It looks like you get two or three new ones added to the available list every time you hit an odd level.
On even numbered levels (2, 4, 6, 8, etc...) you pick a Talent instead. There are a
lot of Talents. A handful appear to be class specific. But the vast majority are ones that anyone can take.
So these are like the Perks of D&D 3.0 and other games since. There are lot more of them than you can ever take, so here is where you really customize your character.
So far I have not had the chance to increase any Attributes. So it looks like in D&D 2.0, where you were stuck with whatever you started with for the entire game. But I am only 3rd level, so I could be wrong.
Today Persephone also came across a dog that she was able to adopt. It was just added to her inventory like any ordinary item. To make it appear in the game she had to equip it (there is a specific equip slot for pets). So now she has a
Black Hound following her. From what I read there are other pets you can get, and they do not fight, or get attacked. They are just there for looking at.
I have also discovered what appears to be a bug with the latest game version (2.00-something).
There is a little 0 on my character's portrait in the hud. It doesn't seem to do anything, or signify anything. It shows up on every character I create from the very first moment of the game. It does not appear on any of the NPCs in my party. I asked around the official forums, and it looks like at least one other person has it too. Apparently it is a bug. Though granted, not a serious one. It is just strange.