First, some context.

Watching my GF play through DA:O, for 9 solid hours I might add, is making me want to replay the game. Not super keen on the old school style of the combat and silent protagonist, but I'm not loathing it, the games solid. My issue though is that the character creator is kind of horridness.

When playing RPG's that let me make custom characters, I tend to make avatars that look like me. Hence my preference for insanely handsome black men. My main issue was that it's near impossible to make a brown skinned person that does not look...off I guess is the right word. The fact that when your a human noble, your family does not even share your skin tone is particularly disappointing. (Hell Fallout 3 handled that orders of magnitude better.)

Now onto my question.

How much better is the Dragon Age 2 character creator, with specific regards to the skin tones available to you? I've seen screenshots, I know that the game as a whole looks better. Can I make a brown skinned person that does not look like my character slapped a bunch of red and brown paint all over there face?

For the sake of having a reference, look to Mass Effect 2, another game by the same company.

I have zero issue make a my Shepard a sexy black man, does Dragon Age 2 allow me the same luxury?

There's a lot more hairstyles, including facial hair, than there was even in Origins and it's of course significantly better than the Mass Effect character creator. Only problem is you can't customise your character's jaw & cheekbones if you choose to have facial hair -- any facial hair, even something like mutton chops or a moustache. Overall it's pretty good, though.

Oh, and what's really cool is your family's facial features and skin tone will change depending on how you customise your Hawke, too.

Bought the game, really diggin it. Thanks for the info @yummylee >:3

If you have the PC version just mod the hell out of it.