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Retroactive skill point mod:
Indeed there are some skill point related issues in 'Vanilla' DS2, but I am not sure if this mod is a good response to face these matters... - obviously this is not the way GPG wanted to handle t, although I partially can understand the player's reason/interest/desire in this mod.
However at least the mod release I have tested some time ago was quite 'unfinished' - actually the mod checked if a character already has got those quest skill points (there is an explit flag for this) and if not they were given, but unfortunately/carelessly the creator forgot to check if the quests itself were fulfilled (there are spearate flags for this) so bascially every new character got it.
But if this has been fixed meanwhile, please leave a message.

Generally for an automatic give-away of skill points (independing if someone thinks (s)he has deserved it) a litte more sophisticated checks would have been appropriate - even some players may think the 'benefit' of this lack is on the user-side, such unmature mods have a huge (negative) impact on the balancing intension of other mods or maps.
Does it even make sense to talk about the balancing of a tiny feature while having such cheat-like mod installed right from the beginning?

 
Alternate Mod:
LadyFemme had good intensions no doubt, nonetheless
based on Hanker Chief's Patch from 2005 (already with early reagent tunings by the way) Hotfix mod / Aranna Legacy mod was created to go on with fixes and tunings (or check out this overview).

Just to mention - better do not use this mod with 'Retroactive skill point mod' - technically it may (still) work, balancing-wise not so much.
While on longer term +/-20 skill points may not really matter that much (you may have items each with 5-10 skill points), it may have unwanted side-effects on the adaptive difficulty feature - indeed (also) introduced to boost new/weaker characters a bit indepenading on map an quests - but it never was intended to find characters with a 20 skill point overhead.

 
Reagent balancing:
Was always a matter of opinion how it really should work...
Bonus/percentage per square vs. impact/restriction of shape+size vs. enchanting costs vs. availability of reagents and slot-items vs. enchanted item in comparison with unique/set items vs. ...
There a different aspect for sure - decent enchanting costs should be appropriate anyhow, but tricky to handle because it's so hard to set up a 'reasonable' price for it - some players easily may (want to) pay it while others will consider it insane if they can buy/find for much less gold/afford a good item in a (nearby) shop or loot chest.

 
Crossbow vs. Bow
Concerning shockwave - should the damage not depend on the hit damage? - Most probably would think, the harder the shot is, the harder the impact is, the harder the shockwave must be!?
However, I think to remember there was a (technical) issue with overlapping shockwaves (time-critical to block/stop ranged shockwave damage form ranged shockwave damage from ranged shockwave damage from ...).
Also there were some discussions how far penetrating arrows should cause shockwaves - at first enemy/impact only, all penetrated targets too or at last/non-penetrated enemy only?
Related to (cross)bow preference: I have seen cutest and bascially bow-prefering elves running around, equipped however with a crossbow too (in 2nd slot) just to use it for 'Critical Shot' power skill.
...it's probably one of the biggest issued in a game to balance bad style.