Everquest Races
The developers seem to have done a good job of
balancing the races so that no race stands out as more advantageous than
another. The biggest factors in choosing a race seem to be the faction
system, infra & ultra vision, and starting location. Class seems
less of a factor, since if a race is able to be a certain class, it is
usually pretty good at it. The faction system is important since
NPC’s in the game dislike players of certain diametrically opposed races.
Remember that there is a reason the difficulty rating of the evil races
is listed as high. A dark elf in a human city will find it hard to
buy or sell anything, be constantly ripped off by the few merchants who
will deal with him, and could find himself attacked and killed just out
of principle. If you choose an evil race, be prepared to be disliked
everywhere you go, but even the good races tend to prefer to hang with
their own kind. Your buying and selling prices will always be best
in your home city. Infravision is very important because it is really
dark at night. If you choose one of the human races, just prepare
for the necessity of staying near light sources until you can afford to
buy something to see with (and a lantern is not all that effective).
Finally, if you plan on grouping with buddies of other races, check the
map and see where you are starting, since it can take 20 to 30 hours of
game time to get powerful enough to travel beyond your home city.
It will be a long time before your Gnome Wizard can meet up with your friend's
Erudite Necromancer.
The Races:
General Race Links