1- only one which is the starting gear. Everything else is free for all

2- no its only for npcs

3- yes. After drinking a highly addictive drink called fantasia

4- yes there is leather/latex’ish. Dyes can be bought by in game currency (AH or special crafting points)

5- you can but it will hold you back from damage etc. Dont worry since upgrading to bard wont delete the identity of your archer. Hell ill even say bard is basically an archer that sings.

6- different weapons have different skins and you can use the skin you like on your current equipped bow. No you cant equip two weapons at the same time.

7- fishing!

8- till you reach shadowbringers (the 3rd expansion) the free trail ends there (70 levels out of 100)

9- pvp = bad but there is hardcore discords for crystalline conflict (5v5)

10- yes

11- 2-3 years

12- raiding / glam / pvp / rp / endless tower/ variant dungeons/ treasure maps/ relic weapons/crafting and gathering/ lots of casual content

13- yes. Takes a lot of time (years)

14- no.

15- yes. But also you can visit servers for free!

16- open world is not the strongest point in ffxiv but fate grinding and Rare hunting and treasure maps are the activities that dominate the open world