GMing DB Dragon Emperor module, need advice
I've been GMing Dragonbane for about a half year now, starting with the Croaking Tower homebrew module and then the DE adventure. While it's gone fairly well, players are starting to chafe at certain elements of the system.
The primary issue is the randomness of advancement. We had five players, two that rolled really good, one that rolled so and so, and two that rolled very poorly. I was given the impression that, while poor starting stats aren't great, they're not as much of a killer as in DnD and the like since advancing skills you're bad at is easier than those you're good at. Unfortunately, those unlucky players have continued to be unlucky. The blacksmith has only advanced their weapon skill once over the course of months, with similar poor luck being a running theme for all but two players, one of whom is close to getting his second HA as he got wrestling to 17 and hammers to 18.
The party fought the boss of the Village from the Day Before, and two of the players couldn't do much direct damage to the monster, since they lacked the stats for it, with one being locked in a fear status loop. Since a player is leaving and being replaced by a new player who rolled downright ludicrous stats, I'm thinking the stat roll system was a bit of a mistake for a long campaign. Does anyone have any advice for effectively rerolling statlines mid campaign, or adjusting stats to a certain baseline (16, 14, 14, 12, 10, 8) for example?
Secondly, we find most of the talents kinda lacking, either due to being extremely niche or ineffective (catfall, master chef), or so extremely good you're practically obliged to pick it (fast footwork). Does anyone know of good homebrew or 3pp stuff that feature interesting or well designed talents (like, for example, does Amaranth have those? I haven't read it!). Thank you for any advice you may have.