In the Jungles of Chult sourcebook, there was a cool little pulpy adventure called the Heart of the Jungle with dinosaurs and savage goblins. Loads of fun fun fun
I may love these new rules, and I am using them, but it's not really just the rules that are bringing me back. I'm a FR guy and the 4e destruction of the Realms (in the Realms, whatever) made me sell a significant portion of my books off in disgust. Now it looks like they have somehow...
I think multiple powers using a tail might be more appropriate with a home brewed feat. All the abilities you mentioned (such as pick pocketing using your tail) could be part of the feat. I tend not to mess with skills as much as feats.
I am definitely house ruling about the weapon needing to agree to be put into the dimensional space. It just seems too arbitrary to me to keep them out of the hands of a class otherwise.