Is it possible to lower a characteristic in order to spend the points on another characteristic during character creation? Specifically, a human character (all 2s on characteristics) would like to play as an agile but not very brawny character so lower Brawn to 1 and up Agility to 4. Is it possible to lower the Brawn?

By the rules, no.

Some GMs house rule it in, however. It's been discussed a few times on this forum.

Found one thread: https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/121839-character-creation-decreasing-characteristics/

Thanks for clarifying that!

Instead of making a new thread, I'll just post this other question here: A PC has both heavy clothing and concealing robes... does the soak values stack to give him Soak 2|?

Thanks!

Nope, soak only stacks when it comes from different sources. Clothing/armor is considered a single source.

If he wants to stack soak he'll need a different source like cybernetics.

They can also use the Talent Jury Rigged to increase armor's ranged or melee Defense by one and call it adding plates or layering (or whatever). Or/and use the Tinkerer Talent and add a Hard Point to their Heavy Clothing then add the Superior Mod which adds 1 Soak and call it adding plates or layering (or whatever).

The point being even though you cannot stack armor you can give the PC a bonus using the above examples and call it "layering" while still staying within the RAW.

Thanks for the clarification!