Welcome back! I"m relatively new as well (last September), I started a necro as that was my main back in live but a couple months back I made a halfing druid on a whim and never looked back. I orignally made him just to check out Rivervale but some higher level guy dropped a
http://wiki.project1999.com/Bear-hide_Jerkin on me and buffed me at level 1 (thanks Thasmon!) and I'm still wearing it at 43! (dont' worry, not all my gear sucks, mana is over 1800 at 43, wis at 186 so room to grow a bit).