The Spirit Realm

Depending on what type of girlfriend you have, the best thing you can do may be to recommend a cleric... now don't lash out, but it's because clerics have easier access to robes, and robes take dyes better than chain armor. Now she's not neccessarily a girly girl, but it's plain fact that by and large, women are quite concerned with the appearance of the character they're playing. A quick investment in 2-3 stacks of Vial of Prismatic Dye is somewhere between "occasionally" and "often" the key to hooking a female player. If you think she'll stick it out long enough, of course, Iksar do have visible graphic for something like Sal'Varae's Robe of Darkness or the Phara Dar robe. Honestly though, those'll be too far down the road to use as a hook, she'll either already be gone or in for the duration at that point.

On shaman gear:

As far as no-level-req gear goes, Seru is good for plate appearance legs & arms. Those go well with BP & boots from Vindicator, Gauntlets of Dragon Slaying, and a good oldfashioned Jaundiced Bone Bracer. Plate extras look nice with chain tunic still, so while hunting can wear the exceedingly functional and ever popular Fungi tunic. Plate won't appear well on Iksar, though, so if going this route, don't go scaley. Cats can't wear Fungi till level 51, so you'll definately be going Vindi if she picks Vah Shir.

For non-visibles, the usual suspects are the best, excluding nodrop nonsense. Hiero, OoIV, player-made jewelry (new PoR stuff is best, otherwise go with Black Sapphire Palladium ears, Black Sapphire Velium neck, things like that with raw hp & mana). Depending on the extremity you'll go through to twink her out, Seru and Blood drops don't have rec or req level on them. Blood Cord of Ssraeshza, Blood Veil of the Shissar, the Mace of Confusion, Yttrium Starred Ring, Seru's Torque, Glowing Amber Band.

Most Cursed drops have rec or req level on them.

The only low-level clicky item worth mentioning is Black Fur Boots. It takes some faction questing prep, best done at around level 10 once the shaman has Spell: Invis Vs Animals (for the underwater part. sharks are bad, mkay?)

Basic droppables starting package, if going to all that trouble for a character with an uncertain future seems like a lot of work:
Fungi tunic
Rune Etched Icewurm Fang
Orb of the Infinite Void
Hierophant's Cloak
Black Sapphire Palladium Earrings (2)
Spiked Seahorse Hide Belt
Shadel Bandit Ring
Coldain Skin Gloves
the above items are entirely all/all, or nearly so, except for the spear, so will be good for any class she decides to try. for a truly all/all list, substitute Smoldering Brand

I think if you make damn near any class, and progress with ONLY what you can get in the tutorial, you'll make progress in hooking her The tutorial is actually a lot of fun, except for the constant messages about stuff you already know. Like A for attack

My god. I re-read my above paragraph, and it sounds like something a Columbian druglord would use as a vision statement

drop eq and level start wow with her

<duo cursed cycle np with warrior.

lol, you're a caster on Zek, what are we gonna do, make you feel bad? I think Sony has that covered.

Ok, been the significant other who got dragged into EQ...was a lot of me going "get off that stupid game" with the husband and the best friend going "try it" until I finally gave in. First thing of importance to me was not getting lost....ingame maps now, so that's mostly out. Then I wanted a pretty character, so made a barbarian warrior cuz I was told it's the easiest class to play. But warrior couldn't solo and kept getting asked for sow and bind....so rerolled the shaman. The husband has played just about every other class, and right now, we're duoing as a shaman and a zerker....best combo we've found so far, only issues come when there's a huge pull and I can't root/slow/heal fast enough. Only thing is, if you go with shm/zerker combo, she'll have to learn how to control agro or how to tank early on....the more powerful the zerker is getting (no raid gear btw, only things we can buy or single group), the more I can sit back, just slowing, dotting and healing, but there was a while where he'd have to really work on holding agro and I'd have to really hold back in order to make him tank. But it's also good for showing her what a shaman can do and where the strengths and weaknesses are. I'd double check with her on how she feels about pvp tho....I know that me, personally, I wouldn't touch a pvp game ever, not my style, so if she's not into it, may want to think about trying her on a blue server first, can always reroll on zek again if she likes the game itself. Oh, and lvling 2 chars at the same speed and gear is nice, keeps the lower lvl char from feeling gimpy and the pl'ing char from feeling burnt out. Just my 2cp tho

My wife and I did exactly what you're doing about 3.5 years ago on Tallon Zek, she started a Druid and I a Paladin. The things people have said in this thread about taking your time and leveling normally, the way it was intended to be done, are very true. My wife loved the challenge of doing new things and the interdependance of our characters. She liked that I absolutely had to keep her alive in order to survive myself and vice versa. I know it sounds corny but for most people real life provides very few opportunities to experience that sort of teamwork and she loved it.

I think you guys will be happy with her playing a Druid, that class is so versatile that she won't feel pigeon-holed into a scripted role everytime she plays as she would with a Cleric. While my wife enjoyed the way our toons worked together she also liked to be able to go out and do things on her own which being a Druid made very easy for her with all the great travel spells. Also Druids are one of the best soloing classes in the game. I'll never forget when I came home from work one night and she couldn't wait to tell me she had just done her first "quad" after reading about how to do it at Druids Grove lol. She was so proud of being able to do it on her own.

Ah the good old days. We're just now returning to EQ after playing EQ2 and WoW for a little over a year and boy have things changed.