Mesmer

A sylvari mesmer.

### Skills

Arcana, Deception, History,Insight, Investigation, Perception, Performance,Persuasion, Sleight of Hand, Stealth

## Class Magic

### Spell Save DC

8 + Proficiency Bonus + Intelligence Modifier

### Spell Attack Modifier

Proficiency Bonus + Intelligence Modifier

A **mesmer** is a mage who specializes in illusion magics, manipulating Focus around themselves to confuse and astound their opponents. Focusing first and foremost on the manipulation of the mind - from the most simple plants to the most complex gods, everything must think to be, and mesmers exploit this. While this magic is tricky to master, a highly skilled mesmer could even trick the iron mind of time itself. Tricksters and performers by nature, mesmers are extremely clever individuals and are known for their rougish personalities. The first mesmers originated from Samaran as a social class of magic-wielding assassins and thieves, but quickly spread from their home city across the world.

## Culture

Mesmers originated from the city of Samaran, their art arising as a social class of magic-wielding thieves, assassins, and criminals. Regularly hired out for their skills in illusion magic and trickery, it was common for mesmers to commit acts of robbery and murder for high pay. However, their art quickly spread across Eukitia and eventually all of Rosenwelt. Despite the widespread natures of modern mesmers, they remain relatively uncommon in the world at large. Illusion magic as a whole is understudied by many academic institutions, and the specific arts related to being a mesmer are often held by unique academies dedicated to training mesmers, which are few and far between. During the Third Era, the highest concentration of mesmers was in the Bely Archipelago and the southern Matepieds.

### A World of their Own

As mesmers work so closely with illusion magic, it is not uncommon for mesmers to view reality different than others. As mages of the mind, they understand that their magic can influence reality in strange ways. If someone is seeing, hearing, and feeling a tree fall, has a tree fallen even if it is only in their mind? The magic mesmers use is based on the ideology that all of reality is simply a shared delusion by every thinking being, and as a result is as malleable as clay. However, mesmers also understand that the best illusion is something real - a real tree falling will forever be more convincing than an illusionary tree falling.

Using these tenants, mesmers are able to weave together illusion and reality, creating something far more than the sum of its parts. Their magic is as solid as silk and as fleeting as a mountain, a true lie that bends and warps the instant it feels solid enough to trust.

### Mesmer Psychosis

The magics a mesmer wields are mind-bending in nature - and this does not exclude their own. Over time, the effects of their own magic can impact a mesmer in traumatizing ways. Usually there is a single tragic event that causes a mesmer to reach their breaking point - perhaps they thought that they were a clone of themselves, and when they didn't fade away began to question if they were real; or maybe they dove too deep in trying to trick time itself, seeing some tragic far-flung future; or, perhaps they simply miscast a spell and have seen the world differently ever since. These breaking points tend to cause a mesmer to enter a state known as "mesmer psychosis" - an affliction that, while not deadly or horrific, leads a mesmer to seem insane to non-mesmers.

## Abilities

One of the most significant abilities of the mesmer is the ability to create illusionary clones of themselves, and then use these clones to damage the minds of their enemies. Their magic focuses on manipulating the minds of their opponents, twisting their realities to allow the mesmer to reach their goals. Many mesmers will focus on a "grand deception," a specific and grand goal they wish to train for and reach in order to manipulate - for example, the manipulation of their powers on themselves, attempting to trick time, or even dominating the minds and wills of others.