I think for tactical rpgs like these, people would first make a naked template as the base character.
Once they're done/roughly done with it, adding each accessories as layers on top with character details would probably be much more efficient in the long term (eyes, clothes, hats, etc...) I know Disgaea work somewhat like that since most of the humanoids have the same poses.
It's still a long process, but I think it's a shorter one than making each pose for each character of your game.
This topic make me think of this tool by 0x72. While it's not the angle you want,
if you were to recreate a similar logic for yourself,
you'd probably save yourself a huge amount of time.
I'd say start small, make a generic idle animation, and add generic accessories, then
work up from there. It'll always feel like "Way too much work" at the beginning,
but you're probably looking at year(s) of work anyway when you look at finished games ʕ´°ᴥ °`ʔ