Speak of the angel, I got softlocked in that fight with the 4 skinks mere minutes before this was posted.
This was a very quick hotfix, great job!
Putting that on the aside, I enjoy the gameplay gimmick of the skinks, this does make slow a good status condition to use because without an item like the spiky club, it is very difficult to kill them cleanly they will simply shield themselves up each time they get hit.
Though, one worry I do have is that might make them unkillable without a weapon because scratch only does 3 damage and they block 3 each time they get hit.