[Player Character] Reduce starting attributes below 50?

Grim Dawn Modding - Tutorials and Help
1

I am attempting to reduce starting attributes below 50. When I set them to say 40, for example, the game then adds 10 to a fresh character to get them back up to 50 and shows “10 points allocated”.

I have tried:

database/records/creatures/pc/[male,female]pc01.dbr
      characterStrength,40,  // from 50
      characterDexterity,40,  // from 50
      characterIntelligence,40,  // from 50

and/or:

database/records/creatures/pc/bio_pc.dbr
    characterStrength,(charLevel*2)+38,  // from '(charLevel*2)+48'
    characterDexterity,(charLevel*2)+38,  // from '(charLevel*2)+48'
    characterIntelligence,(charLevel*2)+38,  // from '(charLevel*2)+48'

Has anyone successfully reduced the starting attributes? I understand I can probably do this with an editor, but I’m looking for a database/records based solution.