Going through the gallery for Final Fantasy III on PSP and came across concept art for the Evoker/Summoner version of Chocobos. I see why you aren't supposed to get attacked on them. They are supposed to be gigantic.
I know they were introduced in Final Fantasy II (1988) so now I'm going to have to play that to unlock that gallery. Ugh. FF2 is /the worst/ of the main series (imo). This is going to be brutal. Now that I think about it, I can probably unlock the gallery via cheat code because the only way I'll ever play that one again is with cheats.
"Appa! Yip yip!"
No need to cheat, Aeon-Meowth.
Just look up the mechanics. They're pretty opaque, but the biggest things are:
1) Evasion is the be all, end all stat. Unequip everyone's armor immediately. They need to start taking damage to gain HP anyway. Almost all of the enemies gain an en- debuff effect on attacks, and all undead deal damage proportional to total HP. Don't get hit baby. Use Shields for increased evasion. If you must use armor, use the breastplate things, not the full plate things. Get the gloves/hats/things that give +10 AGI and stuff.
2) Keep a Sword and Shield on Firion the entire playthrough. I don't know how it varies version to version, but in the original FF2, Firion's Agility stat(raised as a random % of your evasion value at the end of any battle) determines preemptive strikes and the rate at which you get ambushed.
3) Designate at least one mage character(honestly it's better to designate two, but you can make 1 work). Keep them naked and in the back row. Spells to focus on, Cure, Life, Berserk, Curse, Shell, Esuna, Fire, Bolt, Flare.
4) On your non-mages, give them Cure and Life spells. Try to get them a little bit of MP via grinding with the Swap spell that Minwu has at the start of the game. These Cure and Life spells will work between fights with 100% effectiveness, so you won't be boned if designated mages die.
5) Get Minwu access asap. He's the best early grind machine for MP, and if you're following this list, this early grind should be all you really need to make the rest of the game flow like honey.
6) Advanced - If you did two mage focused characters, split their spell types. You'll need a list for the ones that explicitly function off Intelligence vs. Spirit, but it's good rule of thumb that White magic spell names = Spirit and Black magic spell names = Int. White Magic users suffer less from getting weapon levels/being physical hybrids. Have them use Daggers, those are one of the least invasive weapon types for mages of either type.
7) You can stop and grind spells or anything any time you want, if you hit a snag.