What do you mean by "fresh" character? Fresh as in:
1) New character with no base set up nor village to join.
In this case,I think investing in PERC x EXPLR x SURV is important. It'll help find decent curio while searching for a good base location.
2) New character but either base or village is already established
I'm definitely not an expert but I think Ysh is correct that you need an industry. Since mining & smithing is a bit hard for me, I focus on Farming & Sewing. Also, My Psyche stat is very low so my main stable high Q curios are Straw Doll, Bouquet of Flower, and Great Wax Seal. I can also make the Seer's item but yeah .... Psyche sort of caps it.
I've attached the curio spreadsheet that I use. For me, these are the more "common" curios I that I see with my activities.