Using a d12 as a d10 with extra bits is absolutely genius for me. I’m working on a dice-pool based TTRPG system that is based on d10, but I may incorporate this fun tidbit to get some extra juice out of dice rolls.

Yes, but if you don’t offer the same accommodations for the person who goes into excruciating detail about how they lift up an iron grate, there’s a bit of an unfair imbalance there. Same goes for someone who can’t necessarily verbalize an entire conversation on the subject, but can say, “I’d like to try and persuade the Governor that we’re perfectly capable individuals, and specifically bring up how we took care of the rats in the tavern cellar, as well as how we turned away the bandits attempting to burgle Mrs. Henderson’s store.”

If you don’t allow for either of those types of situations, you’re just promoting people who have a real-life charisma over those that don’t.

I believe Shkipin confirmed in a tweet that the illustrations would be reworked. No idea if this was caught in time to change the first printing, or if it will only be changed for the second run forward. Also no word as to whether or not they will be reworked with/without AI. I suspect they will, given how prolific Shkipin is in the AI/NFT front, but I hope WotC will take a closer look at things to prevent that from happening.

DiceCloud is a fantastic character sheet website. Fully customizable in terms of homebrew items and subclasses and the like, and the discord community is super friendly and willing to help you with whatever. It looks really intimidating, but there are guides and pre-made libraries that will help you with whatever you need.