I suppose a table would be the best system, not only would it be easy to change, but also if people in the future want to make EQ "mods" using the emulator, with modified classes/races, etc., customisable starting items would be a good idea.
You could probably have a table with an entry for each class (1=warrior,2=cleric, etc) with a list of items, e.g ("INSERT INTO startitem VALUES(entryno,itemno,quantity)"
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