Int 4 is all you really need across the board, as long as you spread your skills out well. I have an IQ 10 guy but it's probably going to end up a waste in the long run.
There's no free heal on level up anymore, at least not on Ranger difficulty. It's still annoying to wait to level up because your NPCs and any characters you make without the quirk have to wait too.
Ascetic is +5 skill points and 1 stat vs. anywhere from 12 to 36 skill points, depending on which trinkets you pick. Assuming you stop a skill at 7 and get +2 from trinket and +1 from book. The top trinkets will give +2/+1, +2/+2/+2, etc. Definitely a good case for using it on a couple characters though, if you aren't looking to abuse Disparnumerophobia. Another quirk I like is Asshole. You don't even need to put a single skill point into Hard Ass, it's just there and set to 10 always. Effectively that saves you up to 44 skill points over the course of the game, if you planned to take it to 10. Realistically it's probably more like 30, since 8's probably all you'd take it to. And there's the circus thing, which is ideal for a leadership character, but fuck turning one of my characters into an actual clown.
As far as attributes -> AP goes, it's (Str+Spd+Int)/4 rounded down. So always make sure those three stats always add up to 12/16/20/24.
SMGs are alright. They do more damage now that they fire 4-shot bursts instead of 3-shot, but that means they chew through even more ammo and are more prone to jamming until you mod them. Penetration is still low, and perks did nothing to improve SMGs either. They're tied for worst perks of any weapon class with Heavy. Rebalancing didn't change much as far as weapons go, imo it's still best to use AR/AR/Sniper+sidearm or melee/Blunt. Scotchmo can keep his shotgun, Rose gets the handguns + EWs later, then whatever on the last NPC.
I can see giving a melee weapon (probably slashing, it doesn't suck anymore) to your sniper for backup, and I have a dedicated blunt weapon user because blunt is the new unarmed. Seems a waste to stick melee weapons on your other guys; whatever you save in bullets you just end up spending on medkits. What I do put on everyone at the start or soon afterwards is Weaponsmithing. For 4 skill points you unlock a perk that gives +1AP as long as you wear light armor, and since heavy armor is shit that's a no-brainer for everyone.