No changing of characters qualities

I messed around with the various characters yesterday trying to see if the descr_character file did anything - apparently, aside from the movement points w/c are changeable it doesn't really do anything. I tried making the ASSASSIN into a LESSER_GENERAL with spying capacity but giving him all the lesser general actions plus spy and removing ASSASINATE but it still behaved like an assassin. I tried switching the ASSASSIN and SPY actions. Still no dice. Are these hardcoded? Does that mean that there's no changing them or no chance to add new characters - wanted to make a sort of 'stealth lesser general' as I described above. I wish that the game wouldn't taunt us so with possibilities that deadend so abruptly.

Sigh,
Clare