Yeah. The special attack & item thing is complecated, not everyone has enough knowledge and brilliance to do it like Xorlak did, in FF-style.
During my previous battle system, you were prompted which spell or item to use, now I've made only 5 portable items (sounds like a small number, yeah) possible to have at time, excluding the "common items" like ores and coal for smithing, herbs and ingredients for chemistry or wood for crafting (also maybe common items like healing/mana/stamina givers), which you can have in ulimited number, if you can afford that or find them.
The spells. Beats me. I don't know. Maybe ability to bind only 5-10 spells to use during battle (think "quick menu") and leave behind those you don't need? But that won't be best. Prompts suck, actually.