Duo Recs with a Newbie

[fauxreigner]

My girlfriend and I recently got an IP exemption and now I'm showing her how to play the game. I'm trying to come up with a race/class for her to play so that I can start a character to duo with her.

She's totally new to the game and 3D games in general, so I'd like to avoid anything that might be difficult for her (mostly Bard and Enchanter). She also wants her character to be "pretty," which by her judgment eliminates Ogres, Trolls, Iksar(s?), Gnomes, and Dwarfs.

I've been trying to figure out her play style to find a class she would enjoy that would fit these restrictions. So far, it sounds like she doesn't want to be strictly a healer or purely offensive. It seems like Necromancer, Druid, Shaman, and Magician might be good choices, but I'd like to field some others' opinions.

I'm open to playing whatever class complements hers nicely (exception: Bard). I'm mostly interested in finding a good race/class for her and then coming up with a duo.

It would be nice for the duo to be self-sufficient, although we're not averse to pickup groups. I would like for us to be able to go to some dungeons and do some crawls, although I'm not sure that a duo would be capable of that without additional players.

So - what are some good duos that will fit her criteria and still work together well?

[PurelyElf]

Druid!

EDIT: and you can be whatever. Monk?

[Slave]

A shaman would fit her bill well. They are complex spellcasters so she won't get bored running up and meleeing everything, they get a doggie, and you can make them prettyish with a barbarian.

A good duo with a shaman would be: Shadowknight or Paladin perhaps for their enormous aggro capabilities and tanking and fun... plus you can play more than her (and you probably will because you're a gamer and she's a normal girl) to make up the exp penalty. Mage or Necromancer for their dps. Monk for sheer fun and splitting pulls. Not enchanter, druid, ranger, because of redundancy, nor rogue or warrior because of aggro issues.

[falkun]

Honestly I was thinking of making her the paladin tank and you could be a complimenting healer or CC.

High elf (http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/2705/highelf.jpg) women (http://everquest.allakhazam.com/races/high_elf_image.JPG) are about as "pretty" as it gets. If she wants to be a bit more hippy, half elven women (http://www.yaksoft.com/images/eq/Snarla_Blowin_Riffs.jpg) have "flared" plate boots.

If you made a shaman, cleric, enc, bard, or necro, you guys would have a pretty potent duo and a great start for a group.

As a paladin, she could do the tanking (which is mostly just pick a target and beat it to death, cast Flash of Light and Stun on it occasionally (not hard), while you could do the pulling with lull (as a enc, cler, or bard) and support with heals, buffs, slows, etc. (as a sham, cler, enc, bard). With this being her first character, let her play the easier role while you play a class that can fill in the gaps. And if she can learn to become a good tank, then you will really be set!

[Nirgon]

High elf or halfling (xp bonus mind you) cleric...
Wood Elf or halfling (^^^^) druid..
Erudites might be out of the question... but good for casters, mage would be pretty simple.

I wouldn't make a non troll/iksar shaman, but if you're not going min/max or care - barbs are a good option. Mage/any healer pretty really well too. Could go pally/cleric. Dorfs and high elves start near each other.

[Doors]

monk/shaman go well. Pick something other than Iksar if shes new.

[aerah]

throwing my lot in with monk / sk / paladin duo'd with shaman.

you can get the added bonus of playing in hilarious blackburrow together.

[Dr4z3r]

Monk/Shaman

Give her a Barbarian Shaman, make yourself a human monk.

[Ektar]

idk barbarians ain't so pretty though. breaking the most important stipulation. shamans are pretty much out

[fauxreigner]

Good suggestions - I think Falkun has a good point about trying to make things pretty simple for her on the first char.

So, what pairs well with a Druid?

I'd also thought about suggesting a Shaman for her and rolling a Monk, but the only race she'd play as a Shaman is Barbarian. I know the best race for Shaman is Iksar, but how far behind are Barbarians? Also, how complicated is it to play a Shaman?

Nec/Nec and Enc/Mag look good too.

[baalzy]

druid+wizard = quad kiting win. Early snares, SoW, patch heals, HP buffs. Both classes can be played by 'pretty' races.

And lots of opportunity for downtime quickies!

[Swish]

http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/2705/highelf.jpg

Slightly off topic but that bottom-left picture had me laughing :D

The classic warrior/cleric combo is still a good one, no penalties there unless the warrior picks a large race or lizard. If you wanted to then find a group you really only need dps slots filled and there's plenty of those around :)

[falkun]

Honestly swish, I always thought that white tiger helmet was badass.

Faux, who is going to be the druid?

Wizard. Quad kiting is pretty easy, but it gets monotonous (that may or may not be a good thing).
Enc (crack, slow, pet) would mesh well with a druid. You could dungeon as a 3-man group (enc pet tank that druid buffs/DS/heals), or outdoors kite with pet, snare, fear, dots.
Shaman for moar dots, pet at 34, slow. But there would be more overlap here than with enc.
Paladin. You both would have heals. The paladin and druid would probably be a solid group starter. Bit weaker than the previous ones mentioned as far as duo, but it would still work.
Just about anything. Honestly, a druid is the 2nd best "jack of all trades" classes in classic EQ. You could pair decently well with just about any other class. Druids have heals, dots, SoW, nukes, DS, a bit of everything.

[Juugox2]

shaman / sk best duo ever!

[Juugox2]

only bad thing about warrior low lvl hard to hold aggro esp if you had a shaman/war duo

[Juugox2]

main reason i rerolled my war to sk so now im cleric/sk duo but kinda wish he was a damn shaman but cleric is still pimp :D