Thanks for the feedback!
The talk radius is definitely too small and should scale with enemy hitbox, in the current way things are implemented. Not sure if I want to keep the current version or rather have *one* interaction radius and *then* decide whether to talk or fight. Anyway will fix this soon.
Skill spend notification with nothing to spend on is a bug indeed, will also fix it soon. In patch 0.1.15 there are some larger changes to the combat skills that will make this problem less common (points will be awarded by leveling the skill line, not the skill, so you need to decide which skills to spend them on). Eventually the entire bug should disappear once there are more options for passives than you can earn points in all skill lines. But may add a small fix sooner.
Gryphons are cool, will probably add them in one way or another when I got some spare time :)
Yeah the later levels of smithing are super grindy at the moment to stretch out the game (as there is not much content yet). So it will get better over time
Glad you are liking the core game loop!