It's still interesting to take Scientist early. Instead of getting it later at a better value, it will simply grow in value overtime, but you will be able to benefit from it. Early game, without LW, 2 points of abilities equal 2 levels after all. Fortunately having Scientist does not influence the cost of raising the abilities which is still calculated from your base stat.
What would make Scientist worthless though is finding enough +Crafting pieces that you could just ignore putting any points in Crafting or Blacksmithing. You SHOULD find a lot of gear like that, but it's not an exact science. Maybe sack Cyseal town and reach level 3 ( the next available talent point ) before deciding if you need Scientist at all.
Other than that, I'm not sure Arrow Recovery is a very good choice unless you really are using Special arrows exclusively and burning through your stocks. Most arrows are easy to craft and come in quite large supplies over the course of the game, but sure enough I only use Knockdown, charm, and the occasional cloud or circumstancial elemental arrow. There aren't a LOT of good talents for a marksman though so Arrow Recovery is probably a nicer grab than trading the talent point for 1 ability later in the game.
As far as special arrow damage goes, I do not know either. Their damage grow with your character and your weapon damage, but are they modified by the Ability I don't know.Supposedly the bow/crossbow abilities directly modify the base damage ( and I think it's directly reflected on the weapons tooltips too ) and the arrows damage are calculated from the weapon base damage, but one can't be too sure ( especially in the light of the the other thread about Oath of Descreation and stuff like that ).
