A fresh, fun start.

[Jimjam]

When you say minimal twinking, do you mean no hand me downs or do you mean no ECmart?

If you mean no handmedowns a good start to a warrior is to spend the first 4 levels in North Ro killing decaying skeletons. A full set of cloth, some backpacks and a rusty two hander from these monsters is a great start. You'll make a tonne of bone chips to ECmart for a 1:2 weapon (Sword of Skyfire, green jade broadsword, etc). Hell, as there are merchants in the inn you will even make a considerable amount of plat just from vendoring the spare weapon/cloth/bag/food drops.

If you mean self found only gear things are a little more tricky. On my self found warrior I quested a bloodforge hammer early to kill wisps in NK (xp and money for vendor bought armor). At around 17 I ventured to Kurns tower to find an Iksar Berserker Club. This makes a great self found primary weapon to be coupled with a polished granite tomahawk.

I think the trick is to find gear upgrades that are on your groups xp path. Kurns and Highpass are both great zones for XP (especially when you factor in scalps/bone chips).

In the 20s I based my grouping around where I could find components for crafted armor quests. It really let me see the world! For the 30s/40s I rotquested a Scimitar of the Ykesha and Trochilic's Skean. Albiet with Velious out there might be better alternatives (Orc Fort!?).