Choosing your Race, Job, and City and their Significance
Choosing your Race, part 1 of 3

Vana'diel, the world of Final Fantasy XI, is a beautiful world many adventurers can become fully emersed in. As you progress in the game, your options increase along with your experiances. However, some of the most important options you have can are rather dificult and/or costly to change once made. The options, which I mean, are those at the very beginning of the game; race and city. Your Job is also very important, however, it is not as crucial a matter in that you can change it whenever you are in a large city.

Race
Race is a crucial matter in that once it is chosen, it can not be changed. To play as a different race, a new character must be created. Race is a crucial matter for a number of reasons. Each race is different, not only in appearance, but also in stats. Therefore, certain races are better at some jobs than others.
So, the question is, which race should you be? Well, that depends on which jobs you want to play with.

The biggest difference between the races, is the MP to HP ratio. It can also be the most expensive to make up for. Keep this in mind when selecting your race. People often also complain at the cost of obtaining more dexterity, but its no where near that of gaining MP.