I would suggest twinking them with the best weapons and fungi tunics. (Also provide them with full spell books when they are near the correct levels.) Twinks are always fun to play, and coming from WoW/SoD they are going to dislike how long it takes to level. This should attempt to alleviate that feeling. Additionally, they will still have goals like epic quest, clickies, other gear slots, leveling, etc.

Additionally:
After playing SoD you are not going to win giving that guy a casting class. Mana regen in old EQ (p99) flat out sucks when you compare the two games. You may have some luck as a shaman with a fungi, but leveling until canni will challenge his will. My suggestion would be to have the guy that played SoD play a Monk.

The guy that played wow might enjoy a shaman, rogue, mage, or enchanter. Shaman have a ton of utility and can canni. Mages have a bit of utility and have the pet tank... The enchanter would be for charming (which is very fun.) The rogue will add a lot of DPS to the group so you can cruse through leveling.

You need to play a cleric, and also have a port bot for them.

I agree 100%. And for some reason my girlfriend loves trade-skilling. (But of course, none of the profitable ones like smithing or JC- only baking, brewing, and sometimes tailoring...) But she is also content to sit and play Mahjong and freecell for hours on end. I'm thinking, "Really? really? of all the video games out there, you like to click little matching blocks?" Ergo, trade-skilling was a match made in heaven.

I'd twink them out completely, too. They came to play because you suggested it, and I wager they're of the assumption that you're fairly established on the server. I doubt they came to experience classic EQ to the nines or you would be aware of that.

You can discuss what's rewarding or whatever if you like, but these dudes will enjoy the game more if they can go truck most content they want. That said, twink the hell out of them.

Contrary to what others have said here I wouldnt twink out newbs to make the game more fun. IMO challenge = fun. Being coddled and hand held is the quickest way to walking away from the game. If anything help them by setting up loc macros, getting their sense heading up, showing them where to bank, level, how to con etc. If they are playing a melee maybe toss them some fine steel or 200pp weapon. Jboots for any nonsow toon are amazing since long runs are just boring.

I dont think you can appreciate the game on the same level or get prepared for what awaits at higher levels by being twinked and powering through the newby zones. The game doesnt really need more 40+ and 50+ toons who are completely oblivious to game mechanics and wipe groups because they either bouht their account or powered through the levels where skills should be honed.

Some of the funnest times I have had were at lowbie levels fighting on the brink of death.

I think your choice of classes will far outweigh the decision on whether or not to twink them.

I think the most important things are to:

1) be able to travel quickly
2) be able to dungeon crawl and see fun content along the way
3) have low downtime between fights

wizard/mage/cleric
druid/enchanter/warrior
druid/enchanter/monk

If you don't mind the travel or hybrid penalty there are obviously a lot of choices.

enchanter/any tank/cleric
cleric/rogue/tank
mage/necro/shaman

Just make sure you have some sort of heals and some sort of tanking ability and it should be fun.

I wouldn't underestimate the rage of having to wait 45 minutes for a boat though...

If I had a choice I would probably go:

Shaman/Monk/Druid

ports, haste, slow, good pulling, decent tanking, good dps, druid can fill in a lot of gaps as well

Impromptu fishing contest! Who can find the most tattered sandals?

That is a tall task to climb. Certainly load a better UI, like DUXA. Some light twinking would be nice. I would say adventure around, try different zones out. Also, trying out different classes and races, sometimes that's all it takes, find a class or race that is enjoyable. But I just can't imagine finding EQ enjoyable if WoW or GW2 was my first MMO and then tried out EQ after.

bard, druid, mage

dunno sounds fun

Full out twinking is a good idea too imo. Everyone likes to talk about how challenging EQ was because in WoW you can level quickly by questing. Everyone seems to think that time consuming equals challenging. There are no encounters in velious era EQ that could even match some of the basic encounters in WoW (I know people are going to cry endlessly about this. So I'll go ahead and admit I've never done trakanon or VP). EQ was difficult simply because everything took forever. Giving a monk a fungi tunic doesnt mean they get to skip everything. It just means they dont have to spend hours on corpse retrievals, and instead of killing the exact same light blue con mob 10,000 times it means they can just get by with killing the same yellow con mob 100 times.

I enjoy playing here because I played in the days when this all new and revolutionary. I enjoy it because if I die, lose my character, lose my account, or take years to level 60 it's all the same kind of entertainment for me.