Welcome to P99 and congratulations on making a smart choice, IMO bard is the best character to roll as a first toon on a server you're new to. You'll find that even the bard class, which has the highest apm generally of any class in EQ, is very mild activity compared to pretty much any modern game so apm will be no issue here.
My personal favorite way to start is as a half elf in Kelethin. IMO the crushbone throneroom at lvl 15 when you get the AOE mez song is one of the funnest bard moments in the game.
Whatever you choose make sure to go agnostic for religion. Bards have access to a variety of illusion items and faction altering songs. Starting with agnostic faction will help you maximize the ways you can leverage those abilites.
Many people choose to join a leveling guild when new to P99 as the server population is lower than what these servers were designed for in era and has been around long enough that it can be hard to find low level characters to group with. You don't really have to seek these leveling guilds out (not sure which is the main one at this point they usually change every few months) they will identify themselves early on and send unsolicited invites to people in common starting zones.
The Bard page on the wiki is a great reference and has pretty much everything you need to build up your character. There are per level hunting guides that can be helpful if you're not familiar with places to go for experience, and I always keep a zone connection map handy as a good reminder of where I am and how it connects to the world at large.
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