Quote Originally Posted by Anapingofness View Post
O_O Chocobos being attacked by fiends? Dear Jeebus... Never! That's a horrible idea! Why would you ever want to discourage an exploration of your world? What's the harm in just looking around a place?
It is confirmed that being on a chocobo in FFXIV will not make you immune to mobs. This is partly, I guess, because mounted fights will be made possible.

Also, to answer OP, how about the rental cost of a chocobo to be like 1% of your total gils or .5%, that way, it's a good gil sink for over the top rich people who got rich while playing in the beta we are in so that maybe, eventually new players might catch up. Plus it will make it so that you will always be able to rent a chocobo, unless you have 1gil left...

As for the level at which you should be able to start renting, I think 15 would be a good level to access a quest for it.