Final Fantasy XII Espers in 3.5

[ffone]

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Esper_(Final_Fantasy_XII)

How would you construct them?

For example, Belias is probably a fire giant (with something added one) and Zalera is a classic Grim-Reaper-y creature. Famfrit might be an intelligent/awakened iron golem with a weaponized Decanter of Endless Water.

Most of them have an elemental association (fire, ice, lightning, earth, water, light, dark, etc.) but on the whole they don't seem to correspond to folklore or DnD monsters, though, and I'm curious if anyone has thought about this.

Fluffwise they were (in the game) wannabe-gods who in time past tried to usurp the gods and failed.

[holywhippet]

I wouldn't build them using existing monster types - at best I'd use existing monster types to help decide what stats to give them. Each one would be an outside type with specific powers available to them. This would let you better match their powers to their in game powers.

I suppose it also depends on what you plan to do with them. If you are aiming to make them enemies then that's one thing. If you plan to make them summonable by the PCs you'd need to be careful not to let them be too strong.

Making them too close to the originals could be difficult since there is no real equivalent to palings in D&D (powers that give temporary immunity to either physical, magical or both damage types).

There's also the question of if you want them to be as tough as the FF XII versions - Zodiark for instance is a really tough fight even for a levelled up party.

[Amnestic]

Consider giving them a Divine Rank, even if it's just Rank 0.

I think it might be best to build them as unique creatures rather than take pre-existing ones (like a Fire Giant) and add to them. More work perhaps, but Espers are meant to be different and whatnot.

[The White Knight]

Maybe try using Pathfinder's Eidolons (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/summoner#TOC-Eidolon) as a baseline, and adjust as needed? If you don't mind adding a few SLAs into the mix, I find you can build just about any monster concept this way.