new magician creation/pet question

[Izor_01]

Planning on rolling a second character on this server and i am just looking for a couple of tips on creation.

It will likely be DE, Erudite or Gnome i am just wondering what good stat allocation would be based on these choices...

Should i spend 15 points in STR off the bat and put the rest into INT? I don't want to be encumbered every 15 minutes...

I have a few pieces of int and mana gear that i will be giving to the char so they wont be starting off totally naked...

Also the pets will eat 50% of the exp if i do not out damage correct? Should i ignore this at low levels and just focus on killing shit as fast and efficiently as possible?

I am going to try to primarily dungeon grind on this character will i have a tough time?