Been trying to create a party for my first game, but have hit a small snag; I can't decipher how the stats relate to the skills (i.e. is metallurgy based off of IQ, Agility, Dexterity, Strength, etc.), and I'm honestly not sure what some of these stats do (pugilism, combat shooting, acrobat, etc.). Does anyone have any information on this?

The wasteland Wiki seem to be the most closet to obvious info, at least a little more of the manual.

[url=http://wasteland.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Wasteland_skills]http://wasteland.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Wasteland_skills[/url]

By the way, pugilism and brawling seem to be sinergy, the metalurgy seem to be useful to extract "infinite" money from the mines (IF you can have A LOT of willpower for do it), the others skills seem to be useful .
However, for the basic: Cover the weapons skills, medic and picklocker first.

Thanks for the link. Seems like a lot of skills are dependent upon IQ, might be a problem depending on how the dice roll. When these skills level up, can they make up for a mediocre influencing stat, or is a good starting stat required to get much use out of its related skills?

Also, from what I can gather, only one person needs Climb, presumably so that they can climb and help everyone else get over obstacles, but what about something like Move Silently? Does this affect the entire party, or only the person who has the skill?

Furthermore, the relationships between some skills, and in some cases the skills themselves, are a little unclear. For example, the wiki mentions that there is a skill for knife fighting as well as a skill for throwing knives; does Knife Fighting overlap with Throwing Knives at all? Does Acrobat allow a character to leap past an enemy in combat or have any other use I should be aware of?

Finally, do any of the stats affect carrying capacity or what weapons can be used? If I roll up someone who is extremely agile and dexterous, for instance, but with next to no strength, is there any chance of them being able to use a rifle/SMG, or should I designate them as the group pistol/throwing knives expert?

The best I can figure, it's the character in front of the party who needs the relevant skill when it comes to reacting to the environment (climb, acrobatics, a special instance of brawling).
As to IQ, the common wisdom is to settle for no less than 15, since there are skills many party members will need later in the game which will require more IQ than is available even on a roll of an 18.

If the leader fails their check, it doesn't move down the list to make subsequent checks? Crap, was hoping I could avoid having to create a Mary Sue to be the skill monkey.

Seems with regard to my last post, Strength doesn't affect carry weight, and I'm guess that by extension that means no impact on usable weapons (short of a self-imposed limitation for RP purposes). That said, if a stat is low enough, does it ever start imposing a penalty on the relevant skills it impacts, or does it just mean that I won't get any bonuses on that skill?

That, and there are cases like Swimming where every single character will be rolling whether they have the skill or not, so you may as well give everybody Swimming.

Makes sense; there were a few skills that I gave everyone that seemed like the sort of thing that they would take in basic training, including swimming and perception, given that it seemed like the kind of thing that everyone should know if they all needed to do something.

Ah right, Perception. I think that's keyed to IQ, by the way.

Yes, that's right.

Swim and Perception are passively checked for everyone in the party. You can also actively use Perception in some areas.

Silent Move is passively checked in a few areas for the leader only, the other party members don't matter.

You have to actively use Climb. In most cases, that one person takes the rest of the party along with them. In a couple of places everyone needs to pass a Climb check to pass (but you don't need to pass these areas, you can just disband someone to climb up then come back down again).

Hm, sounds like the best approach will be to have the most agile person take point. Makes sense, I guess; you want the person best at avoiding detection going first, presumably doing their best to get a view of things before the rest of the gang starts making too much noise. Other than that, sounds like I shouldn't try to roll a character with *all* of the skills, which is definitely a relief.