The map fog is not intentional, it is a bug.
The gold being an item might be solely for the purpose of the other player pickpocketing it from you. I can't think of any other reason for it to be an item.
I think the warrior probably could use some elemental defense skills. Those do exist in the game as "X shield" skills, maybe they could also work off of Way of the Warrior as well? I like the idea of the warrior starting off with a default skill that boosts their defense - maybe 1 turn duration/1 turn cooldown skill which costs like 5 AP but boosts their physical defense for one turn.
