In the Tutorial if you hail the guy outside the spider caves, he will give you a decent h2h and an aug. in the Tutorial in the jail area you can kill mobs and get a cracked staff. Also in the Names in the Tutorial drop decent weapons including 1hb. One of the last quest also give you a class appropriate weapon. The monk will be given a h2h.
Ask around in General chat for a nice and generous tradeskiller and beg them to make trio jewelry set for you. 8 gold items (gold trio earring x 2, gold trio ring x2, gold trio pendant, gold trio mask, gold trio wrist x 2). (Gold is recommended lvl 20, Electrum has no level recommendation but is weaker). Those are no-stat blank jewelry with 2 type 10 augment slots, and 1 type 11 augment slot. Then beg them to make 8 cut underfoot diamond augment (Trillion cut for +INT, Half-moon cut for +WIS) (type 11 augs), 8 round cut emeralds (type 10 augs), and 8 round cut Opals (type 10 augs). Cost to produce is about 320 pp. Insert those augs into the blank jewelry. The result will be the 8-item set, which has: +56 to AC, STR, DEX, STA, AGI, INT(or WIZ), all resists, +1520 HP,Mana, Endurance. And that will be at lvl 20. At lvl 35 you can upgrade it to Platinum set for 80 AC, 2032 HP/Mana, at lvl 50 upgrade to velium set for 120 AC, 3058 HP/mana and so on) Also beg for Merchant's Feast food and Merchant's Brew drink and add combined 153 AC and 450 HP/Mana/End at lvl 1. Add a weapon set and you'll be basically immortal without wearing a single piece of defiant visible armor (yes, that's basically the best armor for your level, upgrade every 5 levels by looting new pieces)