Just catching up on this thread. Great ideas folks!

Aramintai - I think you were kind of arguing against it, but that mock-up of Hiver's idea (http://www.larian.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=34882&Number=494624#Post494624) looks great to me. And I personally like the option to have the generic skill category icons (for "Warrior," "Fire Magic," etc.) in the hotbar, just as you have them pictured - that's exactly what I was originally imagining in the OP list. (Of course, this would be in addition to, not instead of, the existing option to place specific individual skills/items in the hotbar.) But again, if all this is too much at this late stage in development, at least making skills in the main skill menu usable during combat and the hotbar switching icons bigger would be an improvement.

Minchi1983 - your "bestiary" journal listing idea is something I'd suggested during the alpha, but now I'm thinking that - at least judging from the battles in Cyseal, and the fact that enemies never respawn - each individual enemy (e.g. a "Level 3 Exploskeleton") may only ever be encountered in the game once or twice, which may limit the usefulness of recording each enemy's stats in the bestiary for future reference. That said, it would still be a cool historical record. I also really like the idea of a talent that would allow the player to identify enemy stats. And the "book" (instead of the current "scroll") UI idea for the journal has my vote.

Hiver - I totally agree on the annoyance of the cooldown delay for skills outside battle; been thinking that myself for a while.