as SweeTs said, on aCis, equiping works perfectly, if you want to add custom starting items, you just have to go in classes .xml in every class (darkfighter, humanfighter etc) and change this line on the first class of the xml which is the parent class of the race (Human Fighter,DE Fighter, Elf Fighter, DE Mage):
<items val="X;Y;Z;A;B" />
but be aware that you have to put the weapon as the last equiping item on the list cause if you put it first it will equip only this and will ignore the rest, and if you put it 3rd f.e. the 4th,5th etc item wont be equiped.
So lets say you want to put:
Chest = 395 (Manticore Skin Shirt)
Legs = 417 (Manticore Skin Gaiters)
Gloves = 2448 (Manticore Skin Gloves)
Boots = 2424 (Manticore Skin Boots)
Helm = 2412 (Plate Helmet)
Rings = 882 (Mithril Ring)
Earings = 851 (Omen Beast's Earring)
Neck = 914 (Necklace of Darkness)
WeaponEquipped = 2499 (Elven Long Sword)
AltWeapon = 225 (Mithril Dagger)
You have to make the list like this:
<items val="395;417;2424;2448;2412;914;851;851;882;882;225;2499" />
so its like: ArmorPiece1;..;ArmorPieceN;Jewel1;...;Jewel5;AltWep;EquippedWep
Be carefull you put first the AltWepons which you want to be on inventory and LAST the equipped one, the one you want the new Char to hold on his hands. Also after the red (the Equipping Weapon) you can add other non equipping items w/e you want, for example a custom item like an extractable chest or w/e you DONT WANT to be equipped (except if its weapon type you have to put before equipped weapon as I said)!
All these is about aCis starting char items and how you can set them properly...
Now about the code of the maker, as someone said, you can make configs only for Fighter and Mage armor (instead of ElfMageHelm etc) you can make it something like this:
MageStartingArmor= X,Y,Z,...,N
FighterStartingArmor = A,B,...,N
and after you can make for weapons:
FighterWeps = X,Y (some standard weps used by all races)
MageWeps = (Here I suppose one kind of weap can fit all mage races)
And finally you can add some fighter weapon configs for special races like dwarf (add blunt) orc (add fists) etc...
So that way you have way less configs and you make it also the same way you made it in you first version... If I was in your place I would use aCis way for this, its simpler, easier and flexible for configure different equipment for every class...
Sorry for long post, I just wanted to help!