Should all races have access to play all classes?

Why require a quest/action from a character to teach you that class if your going to put restrictions on acquiring it ?

Once again you assume the old lore of EQ plays a significant part here. Ogres have already been changed from the massive, ugly brutes to a more civilized brutish look. We should wait until the lore is actually presented before hanging said races out to dry because they weren't as intelligent in the past. I'm all for restrictions, but we don't even know what the lore is just yet.

Lore is an important part of what makes EQ what it is. Without it, you're not adventuring in Norrath.

It makes absolutely no sense to have a Troll or Ogre who can learn wizard spells and teleport...just like it makes no sense for a Gnome or Wood Elf to be a barbarian fighting toe to toe against giants.

EQ is special because it's story means something. I really hope they stick to that, and it would be really amazing for each race to have it's own home city just like EQ1. I have fond memories of exploring each races "homeland" for the first time.

Although the other options may be more tied to lore they still would force people to play races they otherwise wouldn't if that class is not available. Although some lore can be fun and entertaining at times.. Not sure who enjoys rerolling 10 toons just to get one thing done. "Oh great! The Tank just DCed..." I have a Tank, give me a moment to log him on" I rather be able to switch right there.. minimize down time.
I've played most MMORPG since EQ1 until now and I must say, the one toon for all classes aspect is one of the most attractive things to me.

i prefer to have classes restricted to races kinda like eq1 did it. it does not make sense that a paladin(good) can be a dark elf ( evil) or shadowknight(evil) can be a high elf(good). Also i like the aspect of having disguising masks in the game and would give more reasons to have them.Also it would make creating that ULTIMATE class spec that everyone MUST have to be allowed to raid/join guilds, that much more difficult and would help cause there to be a wider variety of characters in the game. I like how eq did it where if you want all the options just play a human but if your in it more for the roleplaying aspect, play another race but know that if you do you cannot utilize all classes.

I'm guessing this question will help them decide which direction to take this specific part of the Lore.
The Lore is being written over the next year (and more) during development.

This I agree with with the small caveat of MAGICAL penalties, be it is also a good idea to add bonuses to the Troll/Ogre/Barbarian that is fitting to the fact that they are more physically capable than a lot of the intelligent races.

I definitely agree with you that (as a seperate or maybe even in addition to the racial penalties) if a race wants to get a class normally lore-locked, they need to go through some special quest series, event, or some general hurdle unlock it; within a race there can always be outliers after all, those with drive enough can become whatever they want. That also allows for richer story telling on the player end, which can only be a good thing.

To clarify, I'm ok with SOME races being able to play ALL classes. If you want to play ALL classes from 1 character, pick one of the races that allows that, for example Humans could be any class.

Ogres being smart? Really? The butt scratching, "Me here for deh lewt" roleplaying Ogres? That would really suck.

Following your thoughts on this topic; What if only initially upon creation (lore wise) people have restrictions, and then their actions (ie: the playing without restrictions) can then change those? Such as betraying your own kind, etc? Then you sort of get the best of both I think? I always liked the idea of starting in my home city and being able to have the freedom to faction up with whoever afterwards.

All of that is totally dependent on the lore that is developed for each particular race. LOL!

I changed my OP to reflect my original intent.

I lean towards the freedom of choice but with penalties for certain combos as well. Best of both worlds in my opinion.

An example, having 2 warrior class characters with same level/gear etc. but one is a Ogre and one is a Gnome. Common sense says the ogre should take a beating better than a gnome. You COULD be a gnome warrior, it should just be a challenge...(and some people like that.) Faction could be a factor too. Where if you are a DE pally you are required to gain a certain amount of faction to take part in Pally specific quests that reward pally specific items. Whereas if you make a HE pally, you automatically have the faction required...I understand this could get a bit fuzzy with "neutral" classes/races but I like the idea of making opposite combo's available, just harder.

Assuming the tanks can actually tank without taunts and aggro

No I think we should have some restrictions,for one it keep us interested,we all like to play alts,it would be no fun if every race could play every class,enough said.

your basing you opinion off of old lore. this is new lore. the old lore has no weight here.

The best reason to have lore restrict certain class/race combinations would be so that there is a better mix of races around. This way there won't be 90% of the world being humans. Also, seeing ogre paladins running around would just feel wrong and out of place.

EQNext more than likely will follow a lot of the old lore from EQ1 and EQ2. However. Allowing evil races to play classes once reserved for Good classes would allow devs to open up much more newer lore or add a new chapter to old lore. Paladin is a Holy Warrior imbued with power from his or her deity.. Evil races have Gods, they pray just like good races do.. Thus they in reality can be Paladins for their own God(s).

Maybe even specific long quests of trials for increasing the stats they are weakest at like intelligence, physical strength, agility etc ?

Again this is another aspect that may require further creation, and development of Lore.

As it stands, in the frame of Norrath, I have never considered Wizard's magic (specifically) to be a type of Arcane power that would bestow it's secrets upon any race (or character in general) that was unable to learn them on their own.

There are however other magical classes that are far more likely to lend their Arcane treasures to the ...dumber ... races. A la Shaman... Sorry Grolyn.

This is an idea worth cultivating. If you can change half of your abilities from any class like I assume they intend when they suggest multiclassing however, those race unique classes could become the target of frequent rebalancing (and/or nerfing).