As a general rule of thumb, try to make every character with all positiv stats 13. The negative stats dearly don't count at all in this game, so you can have 8 in every negative stat without a problem (but keep in mind the class requirements). This might take some time, but it will make the game -a lot- easier!
The only negative stat to look out for is SN and should be lowered first during level ups.
Guacamole: Was trying to make a Ice Elf on ROA 1 but it wouldn't let me, and I do fulfill the requirements
I was wondering this for a while too. It's stated incorrectly in two different manuals, that the negative value under 4 should be AC, but it's actually AV.