If you’re going with a witch from folklore & such with spells that affect the appearance, glamours & the like then yes, but that’s not what the Acolyte is, or at least, there’s been no implication that they have abilities in that direction.
[Removed —Sarno]
it’s gender locked but not for long. With PoE 2 will arrive the possibility to buy alternate skins for your character (and that will also feature the gender).
For example i NEVER touched the templar because i hate his look. And I played more than 3.4k hours in this game…
Played a little bit the marauder but mostly witch and scion. The day they release an alt gender for the templar will be the day that a lot of builds idea i have for this class will come to fruition.
Have you hit the ground yet?
Why do you think I don’t have a webcam…
Modesty?
Oh… Really?? You are talking about “a middle ground”?
Yes I wish there wouldnt be any gender locked classes
What about, instead of creating a character customisation system, there’s just a second player model implemented for each “class”? So, you pick the acolyte, for example. When you select it - you have the two buttons. Male button, and female button. No customisation per se, but another pre-made, pre-designed character model of the opposite sex?
I have no idea what the intricacies of game development are like, but that seems like less effort than creating a character creator with customisation.
(if someone already suggested this, sorry, but reading 246 messages is tedious)
That would still require double the work to implement (new models, animation, voice over work, etc).
Oh, you’re absolutely right. I just feel like it would be less work than a customization system that would have enough options to satisfy anyone. If they decide to go the route of losing the gender lock, that is.
BTW I’ll never dare to question the chars gender they identify with that’s a nono in todays life. This should solve everything am I right?
This is the first game I have ever seen that literally has a REASON for gender locking, and its that the characters you are playing are a whole person: they are not YOU, they are described as being essentially reincarnations of specific heros. Honestly, I find it odd in the first place that someone would have an issue with a character in a game being one gender or the other at all.
There are TONS of games that automatically force the main character to be male, and I’ve never seen a single complaint about it by anyone, male or female. I’m sure a handful of people have complained, but it isnt a major concern.
This complaint, to me, speaks more to your lack of openness in admitting that heros can be any gender, as well as insecurity that you feel you don’t want to play the opposite gender because… ??? I cant come up with any valid reason that the gender of the class matters. If you want to play the class, play it. If you want to play ONLY male characters, only play the male ones. Thats a personal choice to lock yourself out of classes based on essentially nothing.
Also, Diablo 3 doesnt have gender locked classes, and hasnt since release. I’ve been playing it since literally release day and it has never had gender locked classes, so not even sure what youre talking about.
I do find it interesting that “because theyre a top dog” make it valid for them to do that if they had, yet an indie dev cant choose to do the same??? I literally do not understand the logic here, and it just makes me think you hate women and thats why you dont want to play as them, cause we ALL know this isnt a woman complaining, lol
Was that to anyone in particular?
Blizzard have slightly more resources to use creating both male/female characters.
Yes, to the OP. He claims that Diablo 3 has gender locked classes, which it does not, and that they can “get away with it because theyre big”.
It is just factually incorrect that they had gender locked classes. I’m aware they have more resources, and thats probably why they don’t. The devs already responded here saying they dont have the resources for this, so it was just me noticing that he’s saying stuff that isnt true
So happy this topic never dies 
Just wanna add: I saw a complaint on steam forums that there’s no choice of skin colour. Somebody’s girlfriend refunded because LE only has white female characters.
For some people this seems very important.
It is the gift that keeps on giving…
Made an account so I could chime in on this. Disclaimer, I haven’t read ALL of this thread, so forgive me if I reiterate an old post. My issue is not that I’m male/female and want to play a specific gender, but rather that when I play a specific character role, I like to play them with a model that aligns with how I envision my character to be. For instance, I find myself wanting to roll a female when I make a magic type, as I feel the profile aligns with how I identify when I play a magic user. On the other hand, I can’t feel like a badass Paladin if the color of my skin is black, but on the contrary, if I was playing an assassin or Rogue type, it would feel more aligned with the type of personality I fit into when I play these roles. I hope this makes sense, and I mean no disrespect racially or sexually in any way.
Right now we’re not playing “an acolyte” or “a paladin”. We’re playing “this specific acolyte” and “this specific paladin”. They could even have a name.
Later, we will have some kind of character customization and we will be able to play whoever we want. Right now, we’re not playing “a sorcerer”, we’re playing “Gandalf”, and Gandalf is an old man with a beard. 
As a majority of one I’d just like to say that when I’m killing bad guys I’m looking at the bad guys & that in my humble opinion ppl obsessed with gender are obsessed with gender.
But while we’re on the subject of identity. Could I be the one who always rolls natural 20s plz?
Bet this topic has it’s own subreddit by now tho.
I do not care about gender as much as I cared that my character look badass.
When I wsa a kiddo & saw on a monitor at a PC shop of a demo of Diablo 1, with the warrior holding a shield & sword moving…It was love at first sight. He looked so badass!
The Rogue looked so elegent, & the Soceror looks like business. I drew many fanarts (which I am sure my mom still has them in a folder ) of them.
Call me superifical, but I think looks does matter, as arpg is about feeling like a badass, & looks is part of it (for me).
You can say a lot of Diablo seriers, but Blizzard know how to make their characters looks badass.
I think the rogue looks decent, but some of the older characters like Sentinal & Primalist looks underwhelming in my opinion. The Pramalist looks lke a scale up dwarf, & Sentinal looks like street kid with funny Kim Jong Woo hair.