Hi, you can use GetClassDefaults node to get default variable values, you don’t need to create an actual object:
To answer your second question, this is very common approach to create your own damage system. It will be much more fitted to your needs. But rather consider it only if you want to do something more advanced, for basic stuff you can handle it with built in system.
And I’m also not a fan of GAS, there are many issues with them, especially in multiplier.