Thanks all for the replies. I’m leaning towards erudite or dark elf, at the moment. But for a final judgement... is the benefit of Iksar vs Erudite or dark elf, so great that I should just avoid necro completely until Kunark ? I doubt I will actually level up two Necromancers, but I could maybe feel inclined to do that if I were able to get enough twink gear by the time Kunark pops out.

I mean what is your alternative? Even without Iksar racials Necros are one of the strongest classes in vanilla EQ. And as has been pointed out, there is nothing an Iksar Necro can do that an Erudite/Dark Elf Necro cannot. The only difference is you will have to lifetap more with a non-Iksar, which itself is not a huge issue 50+ because you will likely be charm soloing and/or grouping in which case you will be life-tapping a lot anyway.

Alternative being to just find another class in the meantime if being a non Iksar was too big of a issue. It did seem like the opinions were split. I just have quite a few memories of dying from AFK or alt tab Liching, even on an Iksar / i suck. Lol.

I’ve read some horror stories of people getting to 60 and then just refilling because kisses are allegedly so superior. Really trying to avoid that

erudite will solo the same way, just with slightly more downtime, its a non issue that only a community of scuffed players would whine about

You can not turn in while hidden, you're thinking of sneak.

Hide can be used that way as well, for indifferent turnins.
Open trade, click hide till indifferent, turn in.

Iksar autocompletes to kisses lol

It depends, what are you going to do with this toon? Are you going to be 50 and in planes before Kunark, 60 quickly and raiding gods and dragons? If that's what the character is for, then the regen doesn't really matter much; you might be a cleric mana battery, but you'll have regrowth on anyways, so the deficit will matter less. If you're going to solo, especially in dungeons, the regen is going to be more important.

Was true at one time, but you can't activate hide with a trade window open any more. I think that got fixed/nerfed like 5+ years ago.

Is this a Hate crime?