Mesmer

A princess in a sumptuous gown lightly descends a grand staircase. A hush falls over the crowd and all eyes turn to take in her beauty. Struck breathless, no-one in the room can look away, not even to notice her companions filtering silently through the crowd.

In the blink of an eye one halfling becomes four. Dancing and tumbling between an ogre’s legs, they twist and turn the brute into a dazed heap of confoundment.

On a high clifftop, four cold and shivering travelers wait in front of a misty purple circle glowing out from the rocks. Finally, the light of the portal snaps to a gentle soft white and they wearily trudge forwards into it, moving ever onwards to higher peaks.

A Mesmer is a master of manipulation, twisting the senses and the mind. To unravel a Mesmer’s delusions is to shatter the mind, and embracing their reality is a trap that might never be escaped. A Cleric might say that belief is a powerful force, strong enough to topple empires and raise gods. The Mesmer’s motto answers: “Seeing is believing.”

## Mind Mages

Mesmers are focused first and foremost on thoughts, feelings, the activity of the mind. From the conscious and coherent ideas of the sentient races to the wild untamed impulses of flora and fauna, everything must think to be. Using this type of magic effectively is a difficult task. A Mesmer must be able to deduce any given thought or feeling, predict the stimuli to twist that thought in just the right way, and recall the arcane magic needed to apply that twist precisely and powerfully.

The pursuit of these studies can take a lifetime, but the results reach far beyond mundane conceptions of thought or sentience. A true master might be able to read the iron mind of a clockwork watch and fool time itself, or peer at the deep cosmic dreams of the world and heavens.

## Illusory World

A Mesmer’s grip over the mind can be utter and total, even to the extent of warping reality itself. If everyone and everything hears, sees, and feels a tree fall, hasn’t one fallen? Mesmer magic can make it so. The first thing a Mesmer learns is that the fabric of reality comprises one great shared delusion, one that’s as malleable as any other.

The counterpart to this truth is an equally valid fact: the best illusion is something real. The most intricate glamours can’t compare with a natural beauty, no illusory wound will kill as surely as a slit throat, and the easiest way to make an appearance somewhere else is quite simply to walk over.

A Mesmer makes use of all these tools to weave illusions and reality together, creating something much more than the sum of its parts. As solid as silk and fleeting as a mountain, a true lie that bends and warps the instant it feels solid enough to trust.

## Creating a Mesmer

A Mesmer is a master of the mind, and as a Mesmer your own mind is your defining characteristic. How do you ponder, guess, dream, and feel? These characteristics are as unique as a fingerprint, and they leave an equally unique mark on the magic you will wield.

Perhaps you are an artful painter, always imagining creative new illusions to draw forth into the world. Or an empirical experimenter, one that studies the brains of your foes by watching them scurry like rats. Maybe you prefer to puzzle and ponder, and you have a head filled with riddles and clever games just waiting to be played. Whatever the nature of your mind may be, so too are you as a Mesmer.

### Quick Build

You can make a Mesmer quickly by following these suggestions. First, Intelligence should be your highest ability score, followed by Charisma or Dexterity. Second, choose the Charlatan background.

# Class Features

As an Mesmer, you gain the following class features.

### Hit Points

Hit Dice: 1d8 per Mesmer level

Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + your Constitution modifier

Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier per Mesmer level after 1st

### Proficiencies

Armor: Light Armor

Weapons: Simple Weapons, Nets, Rapiers, Whips

Tools: None

Saving Throws: Intelligence, Dexterity

Skills: Choose two from Arcana, Deception, History, Insight, Investigation, Perception, Performance, Persuasion, Sleight of Hand, and Stealth.

### Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

* (a) a rapier or (b) a whip, or (c) any simple weapon of your choice
* (a) a Diplomat’s pack or (b) an Entertainer’s pack
* (a) a component pouch or (b) an arcane focus
* leather armor, a net, and 5 throwing darts

## Illusory Clones

At 1st level, your magic can generate confounding images of yourself. When you cast a spell using a spell slot, you may create an illusion of yourself in any space you can see within 30 feet of you or a target of that spell. It is an insubstantial image of yourself along with anything you are wearing or holding. It rotates to face the same direction you do, and always mimics all of your motions. It’s an intangible image, so if its position or motion would cause it to collide with terrain or objects, it intersects through them instead.

As a bonus action you can command one of your clones to move up to 120 feet in the manner of your choice to another location you can see. For example, you can have a clone cartwheel over the ground or swim through the air.

You may have no more than 3 clones at a time. You can freely dismiss any of your clones at any time. A clone fades away on its own after one minute.

When you create a clone you may choose to concentrate on maintaining it for up to one hour, and if you do it doesn’t fade away until you end your concentration.

Your clones are precise visual duplicates of yourself, but that does not mean they are always perfectly convincing. If a creature witnesses a clone being created or observes a clone doing something obviously illusory, it automatically recognizes the clone as an illusion. Creatures may lose track of which clones are false under sufficiently confusing circumstances, such as heavy obscuration, invisibility, or after being knocked unconscious. Your clones mimic your visual appearance, meaning they are invisible when you are.

#### **Tip: How Deceptive are Clones?**

Any “obviously illusory” action will cause creatures to recognize a clone as an illusion. What constitutes “obviously” is highly dependent on the observer’s intelligence and wisdom and should be adjudicated on a contextual basis.

Giveaways might include a clone appearing to talk without making a sound, swinging a sword at nothing at all, intersecting with a solid object, or standing in midair. If a clone is attacked or subjected to a spell, the attack or spell simply passes through it with no effect and any creatures witnessing that occurrence recognize the clone as an illusion. A creature that suspects a clone of being an illusion can make an Investigation check against the caster’s spell save DC to successfully recognize the target as a clone, or it may do something else that will otherwise test the clone. A cyclops would likely try to toss a rock at the clone, whereas a well-traveled diplomat might merely wave a hand through it to confirm her suspicions.

Unless Mesmers are a rarity in your world, you should assume that intelligent creatures will be somewhat aware of a Mesmer’s tricks from past experiences, stories, or legends. Clones are a Mesmer’s basic tools, and do not constitute effective illusions without some further support or application of creativity.

## Spellcasting

A Mesmer is capable of wielding magic at 1st level to confuse the mind and twist the senses. See chapter 10 in the PHB for the general rules of spellcasting and page 6 of this resource for the Mesmer spell list.

### Cantrips

At 1st level, you know three cantrips of your choice from the Mesmer spell list. You learn additional Mesmer cantrips of your choice at higher levels, as shown in the Cantrips Known column of the Mesmer table.

### Spell Slots

The Mesmer table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your Mesmer spells of 1st level and higher. To cast one of these Mesmer spells, you must expend a slot of the spell's level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest.

### Spells Known of 1st Level and Higher

You know three 1st-level spells of your choice from the Mesmer spell list. The Spells Known column of the Mesmer table shows when you learn more Mesmer spells of your choice. Each of these spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots. For instance, when you reach 3rd level in this class, you can learn one new spell of 1st or 2nd level. Additionally, when you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of the Mesmer spells you know and replace it with another spell from the Mesmer spell list, which also must be of a level for which you have spell slots.

### Spelcasting Ability

Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for your Mesmer spells, since the power of your magic depends on your study of the mind and your knowledge of emotions and thoughts. You use your Intelligence whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Intelligence modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a Mesmer spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one.

***Spell save DC =*** 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier

***Spell attack modifier =*** your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier
### Spellcasting Focus

You can use an arcane focus as a spellcasting focus for your Mesmer spells.

## Shatter Illusions

When something once thought true is revealed to be an illusion, reality breaks and reforms in a moment of power. Beginning at 2nd level you may take an action to disrupt reality, dispelling all your clones simultaneously. Each one fractures into glimmering shards, suspended for an instant throughout a 10-foot-radius sphere centered on that clone’s last location. Creatures you choose within those areas must make an Intelligence saving throw against your spell save DC, as the shards splinter and fade. Each time you wish to Shatter Illusions, first choose one of the following effects:

***Shatter Mind:*** You tear minds to shreds. Deal 1d8 psychic damage to creatures that fail the saving throw, or half as much damage to creatures that succeed. Creatures may be dealt multiple instances of this damage by the same saving throw if they are within overlapping areas of multiple clones you shattered. This effect’s damage per clone increases by 1d8 at certain Mesmer levels: 5th level (2d8), 11th level (3d8), and 17th level (4d8).

***Shatter Will:*** You convince creatures that their efforts are futile. Creatures that fail the saving throw have disadvantage on ability checks until the end of your next turn. You may also choose to Shatter Illusions using this effect as a reaction, only when a creature that would be in the area misses an attack. If you shatter this way and the attacking creature is affected, that creature also has disadvantage on attacks and saving throws for the same duration.

***Shatter Clarity:*** You reveal something awful and incredible beneath the illusion. Creatures that fail the saving throw are charmed or frightened by you (your choice) for up to a minute. While charmed or frightened by this effect a creature believes all your clones to be real, dismissing and instantly forgetting any evidence to the contrary. A creature charmed or frightened by this effect can make a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success.

## Grand Deception

Also at 2nd level, you begin to learn about a particularly elaborate and pervasive element of the illusory world around you. Your choices are described in the following section of this document.

* Grand Deception: Self
* Grand Deception:Time
* Grand Deception: Domination

Your knowledge of this grand deception grants you features at 2nd level and again at 6th, 10th, and 14th level.

## False Memories

At 3rd level you learn to rearrange your own mind as easily as another’s. As an action, you may begin concentrating on this feature until the start of your next turn. This is a subtle technique, and not outwardly apparent. If you complete the duration, you may then forget one Mesmer spell you know and replace it with a different Mesmer spell of the same level. You can attempt to use this feature a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum of once), and you regain all uses when you finish a short or long rest.

## Ability Score Improvement

When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can't increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.

## Illusory Identity

Upon reaching 18th level, the line between reality and illusion becomes blurred around your body. You count as an additional clone for the purpose of Shatter Illusions and you may use Shatter Illusions when you have no clones.

## Master of Mendacity

At 20th level your study of Mesmer magic has led you to a complete understanding of all that is real and unreal.

Magic suffuses your illusions, and nothing is as it seems. When you cast a spell using a spell slot, you can expend your bonus action or action, and a spell slot of the same level, to have one of your clones cast the same spell simultaneously. The clone ignores the spell’s usual casting time and components, and you may have it choose a different target if able. If the spell requires concentration, your own concentration applies to both copies.

# Grand Deceptions

Mesmers learn that all reality is illusory, but some elements of this beautiful lie bend more freely than others. A Mesmer may learn how to work especially powerful and unique magic by manipulating these particularly frangible elements of the world. Often the grand deception that calls to a Mesmer reflects their own patterns of thought, the unique flavor of their mind and personality.

## Grand Deception: Self

A Mesmer that learns to distort the sense of self is uniquely skilled in wielding their clones and generating illusory appearances. Scholars of this deception risk losing their personal identity entirely, but many great Mesmers claim that is an outcome to be desired, representing a step towards true enlightenment and great power.

### Silver-Tongued Self

When you begin to study the grand deception of Self at 2nd level, your clones take on a little more of your essence. They mimic your speech and other noises you make.

### Shatter Self

Also at 2nd level, your choice of deception grants you a fourth option for *Shatter Illusions*:
***Shatter Self:*** You remove yourself from sight. Creatures that fail the saving throw can’t see you or your clones until the end of your next turn, as if you were invisible.

### Self-Awareness

Starting at 6th level your sense of self is shared between you and your clones. As an action, you can choose one of your clones to see through its eyes and hear through its ears until the end of your next turn. During this time, you are simultaneously conscious of your own senses.

### Who's the Real Me?

By 10th level, it becomes meaningless to ask which of your clones is the true self. You may take an action and expend a spell slot of third level or higher to choose one of your clones in an unoccupied space and swap places with it. There is no detectable sign of this at the instant it occurs. Until new evidence is produced, creatures who believed your clone was an illusion now believe you are that illusion, and creatures that believed you to be real now believe the clone in your place to be real.

### No Real Me

Beginning at 14th level, whenever you use Who’s the Real Me? you may create a new clone in an unoccupied space you can see within 30 feet of your new or previous position, and you may use Who’s the Real Me? as a bonus action.

## Grand Deception: Time

Of all the grand deceptions a Mesmer may choose to study, the most arcane and secretive is the deception of time. Considered by most to be immutable and inescapable, time is just another ticking toy to a Mesmer, waiting to be unwound. A Mesmer that distorts time is an expert at keeping their allies from harm, always making sure that they and theirs live in the best possible timeline.

### Chronomancer's Clock

When you choose the grand deception of Time at 2nd level, you gain proficiency with Shields, and you may use a shield as a spellcasting focus for your Mesmer spells. When you wield a shield, its face shows a magical clock of any nature you choose. You determine which perspective of time it tells, whether that’s the city clocktower’s, your own, or something entirely different.

### Shatter Time

Also at 2nd level, your choice of deception grants you a fourth option for *Shatter Illusions*:
***Shatter Time:*** You reveal that time isn’t when everyone thought it was. You don’t force creatures to make saving throws when you shatter using this effect. You may shatter using this effect only as a reaction, which you take when a creature that would be within the area fails a saving throw. Wind back time and allow that creature to make a new roll, replacing the old result with the new result. The new roll gains a bonus equal to the number of clones you shattered.

### Right Time, Wrong Place

At 6th level your knowledge of time enables you to shift yourself out of it, displacing your body in time and avoiding attacks aimed at you in the present. Immediately after you use Shatter Illusions you gain a bonus to AC and future Initiative checks equal to the number of clones that you shattered. This bonus is removed each time you use *Shatter Illusions*, right before the new bonus is applied. This bonus lasts until removed, until you choose to freely relinquish it, or until you finish a long rest.

### Back To Better Days

Beginning at 10th level, you can bring creatures back to healthier, happier times. Whenever you use *Shatter Illusions* you may choose one creature you can see within the area and cause it to regain 2d8 hit points. That creature may benefit from multiple instances of this healing if it is within overlapping areas of multiple clones you shattered.

The amount of hit points granted per clone increases to 3d8 when you reach your 17th Mesmer level.

### Duplicitious Self

Upon reaching 14th level you learn to split yourself between two timelines. As an action, or as a reaction to taking damage, you may expend a spell slot of any level to either create a clone in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of yourself, or teleport into that space and create a clone in the space you just vacated. Creatures witnessing this can’t immediately tell the difference between you and the clone you just created, unless some other evidence is produced.

## Grand Deception: Domination

The most sinister of the deceptions a Mesmer can learn to wield is that of Domination. Ownership, possession, property: Mesmers may not be the only scholars who know how mutable these concepts are, but they are the best equipped to use them as tools of wrath and discipline. A Mesmer that specializes in Domination is an expert at grasping minds and tearing them apart.

### Oppressive Illusions

When you choose to study the grand deception of Domination at 2nd level, you learn how to keep a subject under your heel. When you create a clone at a location within 5 feet of a creature you can see that is charmed or frightened by you, you may simultaneously create an additional clone, also within 5 feet of that creature.

### Shatter Domination

Also at 2nd level, your choice of deception grants you a fourth option for *Shatter Illusions*:
***Shatter Domination:*** You spurn one of your worthless subjects. Choose one creature that failed the saving throw while it was charmed or frightened by you. It takes 2d10 psychic damage for each clone you shattered, and then it loses the charmed and frightened conditions. Within the next minute, it has disadvantage on its next saving throw against being charmed or frightened by you. This effect’s damage per clone increases by 1d10 at certain Mesmer levels: 5th level (3d10), 11th level (4d10), and 17th level (5d10).

### Devastating Disillusionment

When you reach 6th level your *Shatter Illusions* feature grows more effective against those you’ve subjugated. Creatures that are charmed or frightened by you have disadvantage on saving throws against your *Shatter Illusions* feature.

### Beautiful and Terrible to Behold

At 10th level you learn to grasp a mind in conflicting and confounding ways. When a creature is both charmed and frightened by you, its speed is reduced to 0 and it is vulnerable to any damage you deal to it that it does not have resistance or immunity to.

### Mindbreaker

By 14th level you have learned to toy with those that resist your illusions. Whenever a creature would pass a saving throw to end a charm or fright condition that you applied to it, you can make an Intelligence (Deception) check against their result. If your result exceeds theirs, they fail their saving throw instead. This is an attempt to twist the mind with Mesmer magic, not to interact socially with a creature, so you do not benefit from the charmed condition for the purpose of this feature. If the target used a feature which allowed it to freely pass the contested saving throw, such as Legendary Resistance, it may also freely exceed this check.

# Multiclassing

In a game using the multiclassing rules (PHB pg. 163), these additional rules apply to the Mesmer:

* ***Multiclassing Prerequisites:*** To qualify for a level in this class, you must have an Intelligence score of 13 or higher.
* ***Multiclassing Proficiencies:*** When you gain your first level in this class, if it wasn’t your initial class, you don’t gain any of its starting proficiencies.