Thanks for the responses everyone. I've been playing around with a couple different shaman. I started a barbarian before making this post, got him to 15, and have since gotten an Ogre to 7. The stat/stun advantage of the Ogre is a major draw but it hasn't felt like it's made a big difference at the the 1-7 range. Someone gave me one of those steins that drop from Ogre guards that has +10 Sta on it and I was able to see that by level 7 that +10 sta was only adding 3 hp. Obviously that will be much more later, but early on, not so much.
Looking at some other aspects the Feerrot is a much better starting zone for making money. By level 5 I had like 50pp. Never got that much in Everfrost, however, by 5 there I had been able to craft a full set of 10% weight reduction bags and the ogre could not. That said, the extra str made that totally irrelevant.
I like tradeskilling, so looking forward to the cultural stuff the Ogre has it much better. The temper that is needed requires human blood which Ill be able to get in my teens. The one downside is that Ogre shaman are restricted to zek so get the +str items and can't use the +wis items. the Northman armor is much better quality, being lighter in many cases and have additional saves vs cold. But the tempers require components I wont be able to get until my 20s and upper 30s. By then I'm not sure the armor will be relevant anymore.
Also the initiate symbol. The ogre one is 10X harder to get but nearly useless. The barbarian one gives you a very decent magical hammer for free and the quest can be done easily if you can pass through black burrow.
Speaking of Black burrow, the Barbarian gets access to so many great turn in quests like the gnoll fang turn in. I don't know that the Ogre gets anything equivalent beyond the lizard meat turn in which is only good till around lvl 5.
Finally, the ogre is really ugly and doesnt seem to have a lot of thematic style whereas the Barbarian is not as bulky and much cooler looking. He gets kilts and polar bear helmets and can turn into a polar bear.
It's a tough choice.
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