That IS a coincidence! My Arisen and Pawn (twins) are so heavily customized, that I have all of the Character Creation choices and options numbered and mapped out in a Google Keep note! No way I could recreate her from memory. Not with all the insane options available! That said, most level 200 Pawns (of the same Vocation) are going to look more or less the same, assuming they're decked out in optimal BBI end-game gear. (Some create Pawns with role play and fashion in mind. I go for raw stats)!
The price to unlock a Vocation is a one-time thing. Once that Vocation is unlocked for your Arisen or Pawn, they stay unlocked. Do note that you have to unlock them separately. Unlocking Sorcerer on your Arisen won't unlock it on your Pawn. Once you have Vocations unlocked, you can change them up (at no additional cost) at any inn or establishment that offers inn-like services.
You've probably realized that the skills you purchase roughly break down into four categories. Primary active skills, secondary active skills, core skills, and augments. Primary, secondary, and core skills are all typed to specific weapon types. Let's take the Strider's double jump core skill as an example. It's a dagger skill that obviously lets you double jump any time you have a dagger equipped. Rangers use daggers, as do Assassins and Magickal Archers. So once you've unlocked the double jump for the Strider, if you switch to Ranger or Assassin (and are using daggers and short bows instead of sword and shield) or Magick Archer (and are using daggers instead of staves), you'll still be able to double jump with the other three non-Strider dagger-wielding Vocations. Likewise, Mages and Sorcerers have can add a levitate core skill to their jump that works both with the Mage's staves and the Sorcerer's archistaves. Once you unlock the levitate core skill with your Mage, both the Sorcerer and the Magick Archer (if using staves instead of daggers) will be able to levitate.
This isn't to say that ALL weapon skills overlap. A Magick Archer has both physical and magickal primary dagger skills at his/her disposal. Striders, Rangers, and Assassins only have access to (mostly) physical dagger primary skills. Likewise, there's pretty much NO overlap between a Fighter's sword and board active/secondary skills and a Warrior's two-hander primary skills. Similarly, short bow secondary skills (Strider, Assassin), long bow secondary skills (Ranger) and magickal bow secondary skills (Magickal Archer) also have little to no overlap. Mages and Sorcerers have a pool of spells that are shared across staves and archistaves. But Mages have a subset of spells that only work with their staves (healing and certain support spells). Sorcerers have a greater repertoire of attack and debilitating spells unique to their archistaves.
But my point is that if there is an overlap in skills across Vocations, purchasing that skill with one Vocation unlocks it for all compatible Vocations. Skills overlap? You only buy it once per character. Unlocking a new Vocation? It only costs you once per character.
The only other skill type I haven't really discussed is the augment category. Each of the nine vocations has a set of unique augments. These are purely passive skills, of which six can be equipped at once. They range the gamut, boosting your physical attack, magickal attack, physical defense, magickal defense, maximum stamina, stagger capacity, knockdown capacity, to letting your lanterns burn for longer or reducing fall damage or speeding up harvesting or reducing stamina consumption for casting spells or reducing the stamina cost of clambering on giant enemies. You name it, there's probably a passive augment for it. Augments are the only truly universal skills. Once an augment is unlocked on that character, it can be equipped absolutely regardless of your current Vocation. Indeed, it'd be a good idea to hit up a Wiki for a list of each Vocation's augments and plan out a roadmap of ones that fit your play style.
Here's a sample of universally great augments.
General purpose augments:
Bastion (Warrior rank 1, greatly increases physical defense)
Awareness (Sorcerer rank 1, greatly increases magickal defense)
Sinew (Fighter rank 5, increases max weight and encumbrance thresholds by 20KG)
Leg-Strength (Strider rank 9, renders you one encumbrance rank lighter for purposes of mobility)
Preemption (Assassin rank 6, attacks deal double damage when hitting unaware enemies)
Bloodlust (Assasin rank 4, greatly increases physical and magickal attack stats and slightly increases physical and magickal defense stats when it's night)
Autonomy (Assassin rank 9, greatly increases physical and magickal attack stats and slightly increases physical and magickal defense stats when playing solo [without Pawns], stacks with Bloodlust)
Regeneration (Magickal Archer rank 8, slow regeneration of health over time, DOES heal white damage)
Tenacity (BBI secret augment, occasionally lets you survive a killing blow with 1 HP)
Physical builds:
Clout (Warrior rank 9, increases physical attack by 20%)
Vehemence (Fighter rank 8, increases physical attack by 10%, stacks with Clout)
Damping (Strider rank 3, no recoil after firing your bow)
Trajectory (Ranger rank 6, causes your arrows to fly 30% farther)
Precision (Ranger rank 8, reduces aiming deviation when strafing while aiming)
Fortitude (Mystic Knight rank 1, slightly increases physical defense, stacks with Bastion)
Magickal builds:
Acuity (Sorcerer rank 9, increases magickal attack by 20%)
Attunement (Mage rank 9, increases magickal attack by 10%, stacks with Acuity)
Articulacy (Sorcerer rank 9, shortens spell casting intonation time by 10%)
Beatitude (Mage rank 4, healing magicks' auras last 50% longer)
Perpetuation (Mage rank 9, enchantment buffs last 30% longer)
Apotropaism (Mage rank 4, slightly increases magickal defense, stacks with Awareness)
There are MANY more Augments to unlock and play with. You're limited to six, but the above sample should give you a great idea of how you can pick and choose a set of augments that synergize well with your current build and Vocation. I would highly suggest unlocking Bastion and Awareness on both of your characters ASAP (since they're both rank 1 augments available as soon as you unlock their class), and then going for the augments that boost either your physical attack or magickal attack stats, depending on what kind of Arisen and Pawn you plan on building. Pawns, of course, will not have access to the augments tied to the three Hybrid Vocations (Assassin, Magickal Archer, Mystic Knight).