There are sixteen playable races in Everquest. They are split between two factions: good and evil. Neutral races are races that have options of either good or evil. Some races are forced to be good or evil. Deity and class also determine your alignment in some cases.
Alignment[]
The choice between good and evil can determine how you start out your character. While nowadays, your alignment usually isn't considered, this is not true in the older areas of the game, such as Kunark and Antonica (excluding North Central Antonica and the Dragons of Norrath region). Good and evil have different pros and cons.
Good[]
Pros:
- More accessible places and towns
- Less people that hate you
Cons:
- Less than stellar racials compared to the evil races
Evil[]
Pros:
- Better racials than most other races
- Cities are more packed with more services
Cons:
- Hated by most of the races in the game
- Little access to certain parts of the world
Starting City[]
Most races have options to two cities; Crescent Reach and their racial city. Some races have access to more, such as Humans and Half Elves. Drakkin are the only race that have access to one starting city, because Crescent Reach is their racial city. They are located in many different places of Norrath, but with access to the Plane of Knowledge, getting from place to place in Norrath is pretty easy.
Racial Traits[]
Almost every race except Humans have special racial traits that help make the game slightly more convenient. One of the most common racial traits is night vision, from Ultravision and Infravision. Some races also have negative racial traits, such as Ogres, Barbarians, and Halfling eating food at a faster rate.
Appearance[]
All playable races so far are humanoid, that is, they have a human like body shape. Even the Froglok, despite having a noticbly different body shape than the other fifteen races, have a humanlike structure with two arms and legs. Some races, such as the mentioned Froglok, the Vah Shir, and the Iksar, look like anthropomrophic animals, while the other thirteen look like humans with various differences, such as the Gnome and Dwarf being drastically shorter, the Ogre and Troll being much thicker and less conventionally attractive, the Dark Elf and Troll having unatural skin colors, and the Elf races having pointed ears.
The first 14 races introduced into the game have game settings that allow them to look as they did when the game first launched, with a less detailed model, and in the case of the ogres and trolls, a fatter, wider model. These switches can be enabled individually of each other, so that players can choose to use the original ogre model while having other races use the newer, more detailed model. The two newer races, the Froglok and the Drakkin, do not have this option. The Drakkin, in paticular, are rendered differently than the other races, having seperated fingers with polygons instead of a blob of four fingers textured to look as if they were seperated, and also having shading that is affected by nearby lights.
Despite this, there are various customization options which allow players to customize their characters slightly based on the character race, such as a facial selection.
Armor Types[]
There are three different armor types: Small, Medium, and Large. Most items in the game have versions of each armor type. Some races can equip two types of armor.
List of Races[]
| Playable Races |
|---|
| Barbarians · Dark Elves · Drakkin · Dwarves · Erudites · Frogloks · Gnomes · Half Elves · Halflings · High Elves · Humans · Iksar · Ogres · Trolls · Vah Shir · Wood Elves |