All kinds of questions..

[Niwashi]

3) A last option is to find someone who can buy you a weathered shortsword from Zanthael in Limsa Lominsa. I'm not certain if they patched it or not, but these vendors exist in case you accidentally delete one of the Lv.1 weapons and need to re-equip it to level your class. I know however that you can't buy them until you unlock the class, although they can be traded and players used them to acquire classes back in September when they didn't have airship travel (I'm looking at all the legacy server players starting in Ul'dah/Gridania who bought Lv.1 arcanist books so they could use the story quests to level the class). Just be aware it costs 63gil to buy from the npc and avoid overpaying (although a tip is always appreciated).

Until you unlock a class by doing the corresponding quest at its guildhall, you're level 0 and wouldn't be able to equip even a level 1 weapon. (I think this may have been different for XIV 1.0 Legacy characters, though.)

I think there may be some workarounds for being able to travel to other cities before getting the airship pass, but the best plan is the standard intended one: Continue advancing through the story, beginning with the class you created the character as. Once you do your level 10 class quest, you can add the other classes located in Limsa Lominsa if you're interested in them. Then once you get to the Lominsan Envoy quest (at around level 15) you can go to the other cities and pick up classes there as well.

p.s. Once you get to adding other classes, it's the Receptionist at each guild hall that offers the quest unlocking that guild's class. But those quests won't be available until you complete the level 10 quest at your starting class's guild hall.

[Tensor]

Thanks for all the great information everyone. Very helpful community.