I'm wondering if any of you know what generally makes for a good, balanced party. I have a general idea just from my past experience with CRPGs, but I actually don't know too much about what this game has in store so, I would like to have an idea what the best choices would be.

Which game?

NOOOOOOOOO STOOOOOOP! You have only one chance to experience this crpg, dont spoil it with soulless math analysis. Once the illusion of what effects different skills have is gone you will never be able to roleplay the game again and all that is left is tedious overly simplistic combat.

Except the game is perfectly capable of kicking your ass in said combat if you build your party wrong :-P

This is a pretty decent guide, after reading it, you'll have much better idea about how the system works and will be able to actually make informed decisions on constructing your party. I even enjoyed the 'tedious overly simplistic combat' much more after properly understanding systems at hand.

(I presume we're talking Wasteland 2 here. If not, well ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Forget me :-P)

You can based on the pre-made characters, they were made by InXile for a fair game (in the normal setting).
(Wasteland 1, a little debatable but for the second are Ok) The first part is OK (though seem he miss a very useful trick with the blades which give a lot of attacks at low AP), but the second.. ewww

Anyway, is a beginning, though maybe the manual is a better idea (Truly, the manual is good) :P

I remember that my first 4 hours were with many reloads due my many deaths but were good times (The game truly warns you, begin in normal), in my second time though I understand the mechanics I tried different combos and found good time with the melee weapons.

P.d. Truly the pre-made characters are a good way to begin with the game if you still don't know how to work the attributes.

Balance the skills and create characters that you want to roleplay. Actually get into the mentality of the game and your party, you are creating a base group of rangers to go out into the wasteland, who do you want to have what skills? The combination of skills for each character are up to you. The only recommendation I will make is to have your sniper be your animal whisperer to keep them out of main combat area so your animal companions (if you choose to have them) don't get killed much.