I have been working on a Final Fantasy setting, and so far it has been a lot of fun to create. Once I get a little more done I'd be happy to post it here, if anyone is interested. But for now I'd love some creative thoughts on "Espers"

For this setting, magic will be learned through Titans. For those familiar, they will essentially work like a Genesys version of Espers from FFIII/VI. When a magic using class equips a Titan, they will have access to any spells that Titan inherently knows. After summoning the Titan three times successfully (with the Knowledge: Summon skill) the character will then have mastered the Titan's possessed spells and can use them at will.

Creating the spells has been easy so far, but creating the effects of summoning Titans is trickier. I don't exactly want them to be super-spells, nor do I want them to feel generic. I want them to feel different. and interesting.

That's where you all come in. I know I want each Titan to have the following components:

• Name
• Summoning Difficulty
• Strain Cost
• Summon Effect
• Known Spells

Here is an example:

• Name-Ramuh
• Summoning Difficulty-Easy
• Strain Cost-4
• Summon Effect- Target up to two enemies within short range. Deal 5 Lightning damage plus the number of Successes rolled and 2 strain damage plus the number of Advantages rolled.
• Known Spells-Lighting

I kind of purposely picked an effect I am not exactly happy with. It just feels like a strong spell. What would I do for other elementals? Same concept with burn or immobilize? Boring...I am keeping that for the spells themselves. I want these guys to feel unique!

So if any classic Final Fantasy fans have any thoughts, mechanically or narratively, I would love to hear them. How do I make these guys feel special? What can they do that a spell can't? Or is it not a problem if I simply make them massive spells? What do you think?

Thanks.

I'd go with the Summon Ally/Grand Summon effect, but bump the rank up to nemesis for some of the stronger ones. Design an adversary profile for each and have them fight in the battle temporarily.

You could try a twist on the old "summons replace the party" rule. A successfully summoned Titan temporarily absorbs the caster's allies. It gets an extra activation for each character absorbed and can use the absorbed character's skill in place of its own. The Titan is banished, and all absorbed allies dropped within short range, when it reaches its Wound or Strain Thresholds, or after it uses some sort of special finishing move (eg, Megaflare).

In practice, each PC gets a separate turn to control the summoned Titan. If it's their turn, they can opt to take on the Titan's Wound/Strain costs themselves (but not inflicted damage). A given Titan cannot be summoned more than once per session, and no more than one Titan can be summoned per encounter.