Do the weather effects in Final Fantasy XIV: a Realm Reborn affect elemental damage, creature strengths and behavior?
I recall that in Final Fantasy XII, weather played an important role in elemental damage, the spawn rate of elementals and entities, and also the behavior of specific monsters.
Best Answer
No to combat. It would be certainly neat if it did though.
Partial Yes to spawns now, some special mobs only appear during certain weather conditions (iirc, its only Odin and his lightning weather atm, but I seem to remember something requiring the gloom weather).
It does also affect fishing, even more so with the highend fish (stupid raincaller), and greatly so with the recently added "Big Fish." The Sightseeing Log also usually requires that you visit each vista during a specific type of weather and time-of-day.
The 2.35 update (Aug 19, 2014) added "Skywatcher" NPCs that will give you an in-game weather forecast for the next 8, 16, and 24 hours (Eorzea time).