May this post forever rest in the abyss.
To anyone else having similar issues, instead of relying on manually editing the xml files I'd recommend using the Stat Editor inside the divinity engine instead. I haven't tested it out completely yet, but it solved my problems. Make sure you have the "Shared" pak loaded in (I think it's loaded by default either way). Create a new skillset file using the skillset table in the Shared > SkillData section as a reference, making sure to add your skills as "Sub Stat" after the first one, otherwise it goes a tad bonkers and doesn't read it properly (since it assumes the next row belongs to another entry).
I'm still doing some light editing on the xml files to get the stats distributed correctly, but that solves all character creation issues.
Cheers!
