Ideal Foursome

[Vexenu]

A lot of good suggestions so far, but I'll come at this from another angle. OP says his friends are returning to EQ after a long hiatus and aren't interested in raiding. This leads me to believe they are starting fresh on the server and thus will be untwinked. It's also decently likely that at least one of the four players will lose interest along the way, which could reduce this foursome to a trio or even down to a duo. With these assumptions in mind, I would recommend he consider this foursome:

1) Enchanter
2) Shaman
3) Magician
4) Druid

An absolute min/max overpowered foursome? Certainly not. But what you do have here are four very strong solo classes that can also group together well, and who could also still form a viable trio if any single member dropped out along the way. Each of these classes are also good choices for a first character since they can all farm plat fairly well. Hunting in the right areas will give you two charmed pets that will be perma snared, tashed and maloed and who can thus also be kept hasted. Add in the Mage pet, Shaman pet and Druid and Mage nukes (with clarity) and you will be absolutely burning through mobs. You can make your way into the 50s with this foursome extremely quickly, at which point everyone will have a main who is also a viable farming character to gear up other alts (which, trust me, you will want to do if raiding is not your focus).