The initial stats will help get you off the ground, but there are enough stat boosting things during the game that you don't need to stress about it. For example, drinking from a barrel holding a colored liquid will provide a permanent bonus to a stat for the character that drinks. Also, eventually you'll be able to use Day of the Gods to get a massive boost to all stats for every party member; it is a temporary buff, but is easily recast if it does expire and it lasts a really long time.
Also, while high stats do give higher bonuses, the game runs on a threshold system. If the stat meets the threshold, you get the bonus, and if the stat doesn't meet the threshold, then you don't. As the stats go higher, the thresholds get farther and farther apart.
For example:
Stat--Bonus
11.....-1
13.....0
15.....+1
17.....+2
19.....+3
21.....+4
...
75.....+10
100.....+11
125.....+12
150.....+13
As far as the provided bonus is concerned, a 125 is worth exactly the same as a 149.
There are fountains scattered through out the game that can raise a stat up to a certain maximum value if it is lower. I don't know offhand where these fountains are, but the max value they can raise a stat to is around 15, and they have a limited number of charges. For example, one well might give +2 Strength (permanent) if Str is below 15, and the well can be used 10 times (this example is made up; I don't know the exact numbers offhand). If you find them, great. If not, don't worry about it.
For a starting party, Knight, Archer, Cleric, and Mage is perfectly fine. You could swap the Archer for a Druid (sacrificing some physical power for a character that can use Self and Elemental magic), or you could swap the Knight for a Paladin (again, a little bit of physical potential for another character that can use Self magic). Either swap makes sure you have two characters that can use Self and two that can use Elemental, since there are status removal spells in both those groups of magic.
Skill points are limited, and raising skills takes progressively more skill points as the skill value gets higher. Therefore, if you take a Knight, then have them be the one to become skilled in the various Misc skills where the party only needs one person able to do it (ex. Disarm Trap; since only one character can make the attempt, there's no need for more than one character to spend skill points on it). This frees up the rest of the party to focus more on their magic skills, which a knight cannot do.
Starting skills are not as important since skills can be learned during the game. For a minor cost savings early on, you can focus on magic skills as those are more expensive to learn than non-magic type skills. However, by mid-game gold is basically a non-issue as long as you aren't frequently having a full party wipe or going on massive spending sprees for no real purpose.
Do make a point of sitting down and considering the weapons and armor you want each character to use. Since each character can use only one or two weapons at a time, there's no point in spending skill points on lots of different weapons for the same character. If you split up which categories of weapons each character will use, then you can use the best of each category you find. For example, if you have your knight use an axe and sword, archer use spear and sword, cleric use mace and shield, and mage use two daggers, then you can use the best axe, mace, shield, and spear, and the best and second best swords and daggers. If everyone chooses daggers, then you're using the best mace and the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th best daggers you find (clerics can't use daggers).
For starting stat points, feel free to pull stat points out of stats a character will not be using. For example, a Knight can drop their Intelligence and Personality, a Cleric can drop Intelligence, while an Archer and Sorcerer can sacrifice Personality. Everyone will use some degree of Might, Endurance, Accuracy, and Speed. Luck plays into resistances, but I've never considered it a primary stat unlike Str/End/Acc/Spd.
Post edited September 26, 2023 by Bookwyrm627