Starting Equipment?

[Qwertystop]

I'm starting a game (D&D 3.5) at 3rd level, and I'm not sure what equipment the characters should have. I'm the only one in the group who knows anything about D&D, so they asked me to choose their equipment. It's my first time playing D&D, but they know almost nothing about it.
What should I give them? Assume standard WBL, and don't count food, spell components, etc into it.
Alternately, should I dial the game back to 1st level and just use the starting equipment that is listed in the PHB?

EDIT: One is a druid, one is a ranger, one is a paladin, and one is a Runeblade

[Bakkan]

Level 3 is sort of a weird place to start equipment-wise, because magic weapons are generally to expensive, and even a +1 armor will take a hefty chuck of your starting change, so you're generally restricted to masterwork arms and armor. However, I would go with the following:

For the weapon-based types: 1 masterwork weapon (300-350 gp)
For the druid: 1 wand of entangle, lesser vigor, or some other interesting 1st-level druid spell (750 gp)
For everyone: 1 masterwork suit of armor (200-800 gp)
For everyone: 1 healing belt (Magic Item Compendium) (750 gp) Note: this great item frees up your druid from having to perform healbot-duty, as each character can, on their own turns, heal themselves and others.
Fr the party (split up as you see fit): most of the useful mundane items in the PHB and other books, including ladders, 10-ft poles and variants, lanterns, tents, bedrolls, sacks, you get the idea (100-150 gp total)

From there, take a look at some of the weapon and armor augment crystals in the Magic Item Compendium. They start at 100 gp, and the least crystals can be put on masterwork arms and armor. I find them a great way to add flavor and function to a weapon for a minimal cost.

[Urpriest]

The Magic Item Compendium also has Everlasting Rations, which go a long way towards simplifying low-level play. See if you can find somebody with budget for a Handy Haversack.

[Greenish]

If you have Magic Item Compendium (which is a great book btw), in the end there's a "shopping list" with items sorted by their slot and price. It's very handy for finding cool and cheap magic items.

It also has a quick and dirty variant of equipping characters, in which each character has two items of their own level, and two of each lower level. Item levels, for this purpose, are just a function of their price.

I recommend you check it out, though advice given here is solid.

[AslanCross]

The PHB2 Standard adventurer's kit:

-Backpack
-Belt Pouch
-Bedroll
-Flint and Steel
-Hempen Rope (50 ft)
-2 Sunrods
-Trail rations
-Waterskin

This totals out to 15 GP and is great to have at any level, though for some characters it can be changed (warforged need neither food nor water, though perhaps having extra rations for everyone is good).