Thank you so much for sharing the ideas. Your appreciation and input is most welcomed.
I think removing a positive die from the roll has the same impact as the "automatic minus" that CrlBox suggested (my answer to their post wasn't there when you made your suggestion - my bad). I am not saying that's not okay, I just think it's creates difficult situations for the players.
About the blank skills: You can use blank skills, you just have +0 bonus (you're not good at it).
In this game, skills were envisioned to be the same for all the players - things that everyone can do. You define the skills, when you create the characters - and skills would end up defining the game you about to play. For instance if you're playing a dungeon crawler (where the characters hack and slash all the time) you won't use Charisma - maybe you'll end up with something like "Sword / Arrows / Magic / Silence / Resistance / Camp". If you want to have unique abilities, write those in "resources" - let's suppose that Magic is not for everyone - then, you should replace it in the Skill section (by Armor, or something, idk) and only those who can use it, should write "Magic" in their Resource section (unlocking that ability and granting a re-roll).
Hope this clarification helps. Feel free to drop any further questions =)