Returning player looking for advice

[6ilchrist]

Hi all! I'm a returning EQ player with many very fond (possibly masochistic) memories of playing EQ when I was in middle school. I have a couple questions I was hoping someone could help me with.

Background: I always seem to play melee characters, but last time around I played a Warrior into the 50s and I was frustrated by my inability to kill anything alone. (Granted, I don't think I was properly geared at all... or necessarily had any idea what I was doing). This time, I decided to play something with a bit more utility, and, once I heard a lot of casting classes are less gear depended, I made a Magician. Then, I was like "well, I hear Shaman (Shamen? Shameni?) can solo well, plus it would be cool to have buffs like SoW!" and I made a Barbarian Shaman. Super cool. But then I decided to make a Shadow Knight because I thought it would be sweet to have a pet and do hood things with my friends like FD and generally explore Norrath a bit this time around.

Anyway, wall of text aside, I've met some incredibly generous folks that have given my DE SK tons of advice, a non-insignificant amount of plat for a newbie, and a full set of Banded armor to help me.

On to the Questions:

1. Due to the aforementioned incredibly generous suit of banded armor, my DE is encumbered even with an empty inventory. Would it be worth it to reroll as a human or other race with a higher starting strength? (I followed the wiki's recommended stat allocation). I am also slightly apprehensive about playing an evil race, since all of my EQ experience has been in the Freeport area and Kunark basically.

2. Would anyone recommend a 2-hand weapon for around 50pp? Currently using a rusty one I convinced a skeleton to part with [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Thanks in advance for the replies. See you in Norrath!
Ryan