Okay, it seems that your children have stat caps when they are processed out of the nursery.
Strength caps at 50. Which is a shame. I saw my child in the nursery have a strength stat of 102, thanks to her mom. So we had another child. Both boys capped at 50 strength after I processed them however.
Dexterity seems to have a higher cap. I have not reached it but I think its beyond 80. So if you are raising combat kids, picking a mother with high dex (80+) sounds more beneficial than picking one with high strength since strength caps lower.
Intelligence caps at 90. My child with the stormborn's capped it at that. My child with a 96 int Laika capped at 90 too. I have not tried to have a child with Averil yet. She has much higher Acad and Science stats and maybe the kids can inherit them. It would be nice to be able to raise an Academy teacher/professor ready child or three.
Interestingly, I have not reached the beauty cap for girls. I wonder if putting the urchin gal on perfume, piercings, and the red dress, all of which raises beauty temporarily/as long as she is wearing them, can pass on a higher beauty cap. Or do mothers have a genetic beauty cap which what they can pass on at max... hmmm. I will try tomorrow.
Pros and cons of raising a combat son:
Pros:
+ I have not seen them lose a kindness stat in battle yet. Someone correct me if I got it wrong. No clicking encourage for them to raise kindness back to a level I want.
+ No upkeep cost
+ If you give them a high dex mom, they start with high dex and can be set to the forward position
Cons:
- Really low starting combat and discipline stats.
- I mean really low. You have to grind their toughness from 25, and their melee and ranged combat from 10. They are going to miss. A lot. I maxed my Dojo. Let's see how far I can get their stats in 50 days. Ideally, I get them +2 melee per day from training.
EDIT: The low melee is partly on me though. I picked the play option in the nursery more to make sure my kids start with high affection and happiness. Train combat has a chance to increase STR, DEX, and Melee according to the wiki. My kids had plenty of the first two but I overestimated what melee stat I was going to get, especially since I rushed my kids out.