Will be playing for first time. I read about luck being able to be increased early in game. How much of an increase and what is a good starting stat? I always stress while setting up new characters and worry that I'm not distributing points appropriately. I'll be playing Knight Archer Cleric Mage. Any other setup concerns I should consider?

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.

Thanks for replying. This kinda sums up stuff I've been reading. I was looking for specifics like "there's a fountain at the beginning that will give everyone luck points so you can move your luck points to other areas without handicapping your party from the beginning". How many and what's a good base to start with?

More generally for stats...

-Everyone can make good use of Speed, since it affects recovery time between actions (regardless of what action).
-If a class can use a stat but doesn't rely on it, then a 13 is a good starting target to avoid taking a penalty. Aim for at least 13 in Might, Endurance, Accuracy, and Speed, then see where how many points you have left to spend.
-Intellect boosts amount of mp for classes that cast Elemental spells, while Personality boosts amount of mp for classes that cast Self spells (so both boost a Druid's mp). This doesn't affect the power of an individual spell, just how many mp the character has for spell casting.

Knight
-Lower Intellect, Personality, and Luck as much as you can. He doesn't need Int or Per, and as noted Luck can be fixed.
-The Knight will get a lot of mileage out of Might and Accuracy; having no magic, he only does damage with his weapons. His class has a good hp pool, so Endurance isn't critical to raise.

Archer
-Lower Personality and Luck as much as you can. She doesn't need Per, and as noted Luck can be fixed.
-The Archer doesn't have a large mp pool, so she'll want some physical stats as well. Same as the Knight, look for Might and Accuracy. Endurance is also useful.

Cleric
-Lower Intellect and Luck as much as you can. She doesn't need Int, and as noted Luck can be fixed.
-She doesn't need as much Might and Accuracy because she's your main healer. Definitely make a point of raising Speed and Endurance, because you want your cleric to be able to heal promptly and you do not want her getting knocked unconscious. If anyone is going to max their starting Endurance, make sure it is your Cleric.

Sorcerer
-Lower Personality and Luck as much as you can. He doesn't need Per, and as noted Luck can be fixed.
-Might and Accuracy give him an option besides spells, especially early. No need to max them, but aim to avoid penalties, because mp doesn't last forever. Some Endurance to help offset his fragility is useful.

Exactly what I was looking for, thanks. I like to play the games within there original intents. Knowing ahead of time about a certain mechanic that will keep me from wasting resources is about the extent of the prior knowledge I'm interested in. I'll use spoilers if I'm stuck but I prefer to explore. It's all about role playing for me. I also find nothing enjoyable about instant kills and level draining when I'm playing a game and I'm not beyond using the "power word reload" spell.

Further to what Bookwyrm has posted there are other means to boost player statistics.

Every month there are shrines which will when visited after speaking to the Oracle provide a stat boost to all characters in the party. Initially it is a +10 boost and then subsequent visits will be +3.

Also players can use alchemy to mix potions called Essence of.. naming the primary stat. They can be consumed once and will provide a +15 boost to the named stat but then reduce another stat by -5. For example the Essence of Strength will increase Strength but then reduce the Intelligence stat.

I tend to make the character responsible for opening chests and looting bodies the recipient of all the bonus white liquid luck barrels. This might be superstitious behaviour on my part I am not sure if the game actually rewards this or not. Also making this character a specialist in Perception skill is another thing that I tend to do. It might have an impact on what items are found.

Other characters should also gain the Perception skill and raise it to expert level. This cuts down on the party damage when the primary character with the Disarm Traps skill is not quite up to the challenge of higher level chests.

NOPE, no effect on items.
The chests's items are randomly determined when the map contents is first created when you first enter it.
They will never change again until the map respawns.

Luck's effect on trap disarming is solely to prevent their magical damage (which the chest' traps certainly do).

Well I did preface it by saying it was superstitious behaviour.

They have found that random reinforcement works best with rats. When they push a button they randomly either receive food or an electric shock. Makes them push it more.

I guess I fall into that category.

Luck has no influence on whether Disarm Trap succeeds. My understanding is that each chest has a Disarm Trap value, and if the opener's skill is high enough, the trap is disarmed. If not...boom.

Perception has no impact on what is found inside a chest. I've heard that in MM7 (and probably 8), it does have a small impact in that some items won't spawn lying on the ground unless your Perception is high enough. I don't think it is worth fussing over (if you have it, great. If not, no big loss), and I don't know if that applies to MM6. Raising Perception on more than one character is a waste of precious skill points in my opinion, especially if your Knight is the one disarming. Just raise Disarm Trap some more and heal the damage when you fail. Save the skill points to put into whatever skill the character is investing for the long term.

I think Bookwyrm627's warning is the most reasonable, given HOW precious skill points are in (at least the later) games of this series. (I've only played 6 and 7). Nonetheless, I must caution that some dungeons' chests do massive damage. Still, there are ways to increase Lockpicking temporarily, if necessary.

I don't recall having much trouble beyond the very early stages. A Knight mastering Disarm Trap was pretty much sufficient without extra investment. By the time simple Master Disarm Trap might not be working, Expert or possibly Master Light and Dark magic are available with Day of the Gods (bunch of extra HP from increased Endurance) and Day of Protection (massive resistance boost for everyone), with Power Cure to wake all unconscious people and Shared Life pulling from the Knight's excess hp pool to fix up any badly wounded characters.

A 7 point Master Disarm Trap yields a disarm value of 21, so at worst go to 8 or 9 skill level for a disarm value of 24 or 27. Or just hold on to a piece of jewelry that improves the skill.

If you use Telekinesis from another room, you can often avoid damage if you don't have a good lock picker. Physics isn't always perfect but it often works

What's "physics" ? Is that a skill? Haven't heard that one before.

I have not done a recent replay of M&M6 but in my last replay of M&M7 I can attest to the fact that getting all of the party characters to Expert perception definitely reduces the number of reloads due to trapped chests and party deaths. And 9 skill points is not exactly an extravagant use of skill resources.