A Knightblade's Guide to Monsters

In most platform RPGs, monsters are your enemies, and only that. Some of them are terrifying, some are merely annoyances, and a few could only be described as "speed bumps". In Final Fantasy Tactics, things aren't quite so cut and dried.

With the exception of demons, any kind of monster in the game can be invited into your party. There are a number of ways of accomplishing this, but most of them are the province of the Mediator. With either the Train ability, or a combination of Invite and Monster Talk, a character of any class can bring monsters into the fold. (The Mediator has intrinsic Monster Talk, but you lose the ability to speak to them once you switch classes). Note that individual monsters in a particular species, like major NPCs, may be immune to your blandishments. Some monsters (notably demons) cannot be invited at all.

Another most interesting monster-related ability belongs to the Squire; it's called "Monster Skill". When a character with that ability active stands next to a monster, a hidden ability emerges.

Most interestingly, the monsters can breed. In fact, you only need one monster to breed them(!) In each monster 'family', there are several subspecies (usually three). A breeding monster can produce offspring from any of the subspecies within its family. Thus, a tame Bomb can lay eggs that will produce other Bombs, Grenades, or even Explosives.

Sadly, there are two non-breeding monster types. Robots do not reproduce themselves, and neither do demons. You also can't poach robots or demons of any stripe.

The abilities unlocked by Monster Skill are indicated in italics.