The stop movement and skill usage is a random character bug, it has happened to me on sebille and ifan.
Explorer mode I have found is actually far too easy while normal difficulty is far too hard.
Skill books need to have the price toned down as right now even with like 2 or 3 Thieving you either can't steal one or you can only steal one and it is just a bit silly really. Sure money is easier to come by now, but it doesn't matter too much if the only thing you want costs you half of what you have and you need like..5 or 6 books.
