Task actually are mostly DB driven, and there are two GUI tools to aid in writing them. One is a standalone program called Task Master from KLS found on EQEmu SVN:
http://code.google.com/p/projecteqemu/downloads/list and the other is the PEQ PHP Editor:
http://code.google.com/p/peqphpeditor/source/checkout
The little bit of Perl you need for tasks is usually limited to no more than a few lines.