Necromancer: Race choice?
 

I finally got P99 working, and I'm ready to dive back in to old school everquest.

I have (at least) one question first:

I've narrowed my class down to necromancer, due to play time constraints and irregular play schedule. A strong solo class is a must.

I'm still undecided for race, though.

Dark elf, or iksar? Something else, like gnome? Is the iksar exp penalty as brutal as it looks on paper? Does regeneration offset it enough to make it worthwhile? Ultravision from dark elves is snazzy, almost bodacious, and I like Neriak.

Talk me into picking a race! Halp!

Gnome gives you quite a few more options to use merchants and bank, and in general require far less faction work to be liked. Solid starting INT, and great newbie area (steamfont) too. very underrated choice.

Iksar regen is amazing. Gamebreaking at higher levels. Great starting Area (FOB), great tween area (LOIO/WW). Newbie currency is bone chips, and no one can amass more faster than a lizard grinding in FOB and Kurns Tower. Once you hit 60 you are done, so the slight XP penalty is an easy trade for a much more lucrative level 60 toon. :)

Dark Elf... If its what you want to be, thats fine. ;)

Iksar for min/maxing
Gnome for looking through the walls - this is invaluable at higher levels in places like HS
Dark Elf for fashion quest
Human for classicness

Does the same apply to troll/iksar shamans? Is regeneration that good? Does troll win for JBB?

Go Iksar! If you're worried about banking and such, do the red wine quest in neriak and kill a bunch of halflings over a Nek forest. You will con amiable to guards inside and outside the city. And be able to bank just don't go near warrior guild in 3rd gate and you'll be fine.

I played de necro on live and a iksar necro on here hands down iksar. You have kurns wich is one the best exp modifiers in the game and honestly u dont have to leave kunark til 26 and grind on treants for cash :). The only faction work i done so far int he game was Thrug and CoV and the sr luclan tag for guard faction in nfp. Once u have Call of boens u cna bank in paniel u can wall bank in HHK or NFP and if u manged to get a pre nerf CoS u can fd bank pretty much any wear :)

I love the idea of gnome and DE necros..but I think the regen thing makes Iksar the best choice. You really don't even need to worry about faction. I started banking in NFP on my Iksar necro as soon as I could FD and invis myself. You can invis to the wall just inside bank door and just move camera to 3rd person to use banker while staying out of LOS from bankers and guards outside. If you want to be extra safe you could FD first since some people train guards in and flop.

The faction thing with Iksar can be quite liberating as an Iksar. You don't have to worry about faction since everyone hates you! lol. There are also easy options to work on faction if you want to. Tagging a Lucan kill one time will take you from scowling to non KOS with NFP guards. Have helped kill him 3 times on monk Iksar and I'm ally in NFP. Beware that bankers and bards in NFP are on two other factions, however.

Iksar, it's fun as hell and you get FD to deal with NPC aggro. The exp penalty is 20%, but it's not really that bad (I got my monk from level 1 to level 20 in about 4 days).

I think having a higher regeneration, and improved night vision is a fair trade-off for the lower intelligence.

If torpor wasn't in the game, there might be an argument for Troll/Iksar shamans. But once you hit 60, hp regen doesn't matter all that much. The stun immunity from the front however, will help you a lot. You can even JBB spam through a mob bashing, where a troll will not.

Will a non Iksar necro work and still be good? Sure. But when you are constantly losing hp due to lich, what is the absolute best thing to have? More HP regen. Min/Maxing to me is more like losing 10 INT to play a race you like more. Extra hp regen is amazing for you.

Play what you'd prefer, but I'd highly recommend Iksar unless you really really really hate them :) You'll usually look like a skeleton anyway!

I went Erudite and blew all my bonechips leveling him up a bit. I wish I hadnt and could restart as a gnome. I am only lvl 8, but that is a lot of time (for me) and I am playing with a friend... so it would put too much of a gap between us to restart.

I would definitely go gnome if I were able to do it again.

Iksar would be swank, but the 32% xp penalty along with the pet taking half xp when soloing would be too slow for me to be able to deal with.