Well, its turning out that editing the NPCs really is a viable option and probably the more practicle thing to do. Thanks to folks here and on Cavedude's site (search is handy!) I've gotten lots of ideas how to modify mobs etc to tone them down.
What I haven't found yet is an easy way to increase health and mana regeneration rates for players. I do have an idea though!
This version of EQ (Titanium) supports charms and augs and I'm hoping EQEmu does as well. In Live, you get a kobold charm for completing the newbie zone quests. I'm thinking I could add this charm (which turns out to be one of the better ones in end game) that comes fitted with flowing thought and regeneration augs. THese would be removable so you could transfer them to a new charm if you choose to change later on. Of course they would be no-drop so you couldn't make 8 characters and get 8 augs all packed into one charm
I saw an item creation tutorial around here someplace. I'll have to go looking again.