[PFS] Spirit Walker Mesmerist


Advice

Shadow Lodge

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I'm looking at a building out a Mesmerist with the Spirit Walker archetype. I'm hoping for a little feedback for anything obvious I'm missing or overlooking.

His combat role would be debuffer/controller caster and his non-combat role would be face/skill monkey. In combat, I'll be looking to Hypnotic Stare my opponents, slip in an Intimidate and then hit them with a spell. Spirit Walker archetype lets me affect undead better and has the silly fun Continued Animation and Command Undead to help my frontliners (or give me a personal meatshield).

Doctor Phantasmos:

HUMAN
STR: 8
DEX: 12
CON: 14
INT: 12
WIS: 10
CHA: 18

Traits:
Reactionary (+2 Init), Demoralizing Presence (+2 Intimidate)

I'm uncomfortable dumping STR any lower than 8. Even though I'm a full caster, DEX is low because I'll be using Noble Scion of War (+CHA to Init) instead of Improved Initiative. WIS at 10 because I'll get the Mesmerist Towering Ego (+CHA to WILL) at L2.

L1:
Feat: Noble Scion of War, (human bonus) Spell Focus: Enchantment
Trick: False Flanker
Initiative now scales with CHA. Can give an ally a temp flanking boost.

L2:
T: Fearsome Guise
Speeding up Intimidate Action economy...24 Disguise Self is just icing on the cake.

L3:
Feat: Intimidate Glance
Bold Stare: Psychic Inception
Speeding up Intimidate Action economy (can possibly have 2 shaken foes in round 2). Can affect mindless creatures with mindless/mind-affecting-immune creatures with stare and mind-affecting spells. The nasty Continued Animation comes online.

L4:
Stat: +1 CHA
Trick: Compel Alacrity
Give party member an emergency movement option.

L5:
Feat: Greater Spell Focus: Enchantment
Better DCs are a no brainer. Also, now can have 2 tricks up.

L6:
Trick: Mask Misery
I've been dilly-dallying picking this up until it could counteract more (and more debilitating) statuses. Command Undead comes online.

L7:
Feat: Extended Stare
Bold Stare: Disorientation
Now can stare from 40' away. Hypnotic Stare penalty of -2 (-3 at L8+) also applies to attack rolls of target! At L7, if I stare and get a demoralize in, my target would have -4 WILL & HIT, -2 FORT/REF/skills.

L8:
Stat: +1 CHA
Trick: Meek Facade
Hypnotic Stare: penalty increase to -3.
Making one of my frontliners a "must-hit" tank like in a MMO...helping keep the baddies away from me.

L9:
Feat: Spell Penetration
Spell Penetration is not sexy, but probably necessary by this point. Also, now can have 3 tricks up.

L10:
Trick: Mesmeric Mirror
Basically emergency Magic Mirror I can throw on a squishy or glass cannon.

L11:
Feat: Excoriating Stare
Bold Stare: Sapped Magic
If the target of my stare gets hit, must save or get the Sickened condition (on top of the Hypnotic Stare and demoralization). Also, Hypnotic Stare penalty applies to DCs of spells & SLAs and SR of target...basically the equivalent of giving allies +3 to saves and +3 stacking Spell Penetration.

Shadow Lodge

Whelp. Been a couple months, hoping folks have a little more experience with or thoughts about the Mesmerist.


I'd never even heard of this, everyone talks about Cult Leader and Vexing Daredevil. It sounds pretty cool for an undead heavy campaign. I'd miss the touch treatments, so hope you have a healer in your party and don't get shaken too often.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

You'll definitely either want Logical Spell or a metamagic rod of the same to deal with the consequences of fear effects.

My experience so far playing a mesmerist is to always have something you can do if things are immune to mind-affecting. Psychic inception helps, but your actions may be better spend buffing your allies in some fights than trying to get through all a construct's immunities.

Also, be sure to remember all your many class features. We nearly TPKed the last time I played my mesmerist, in part due to me forgetting to apply painful stare damage.


yes, love continued animation, silly fun is right. because of it I don't really feel the archetype only excels in undead heavy campaigns, because you keep enough of a regular mesmerist and have this for humanoids, and upgrading to monster at 14 is a boost for later levels

snag something to counter shaken, whether rod or pots, and I disagree on falling back to buffs for mind immune, I think the chassis gives you a reasonable enough chance to do something. Mind immunes are often built around that covering a key weakness, and getting through half the time(or full for undead) is nice, plus you are still helping the party with tricks

I'm not sure on intimidating glance, you already have fearsome guise, and it uses the same action as putting stare on in the first place

Shadow Lodge

I'll be carrying Pots of Remove Fear and picking up a rod along the way.

@Arutema, I've played other casters so I'm making sure that I'll have one or two bread and butter spells, then a nice swath of varied back up spells/scrolls.

@plaidwandering, my thinking was I could have Fearsome Guise implanted on one martial and use Intimidating Glance on another creature if there were multiple creatures (unfortunately, parties don't always focus fire the same target). Also, it would give me a back up if I had to go: Round 1 Stare (move/standard open for something else that trumps Intimidating). Round 2: Intimidating Glance > Standard cast.

However, I'm not sure on that yet. Any suggestions for a replacement feat? I could go with the classic Improved Initiative or maybe Ready for Battle or Ready for Pain feats.


Then you'd have to not have stare on the same thing the fighter is hitting, and thus no continued animation when it dies.

Is there a feat that lets you inti on a move? would almost be better than a swift in this case I think

or you could skip the inti focus completely, shuffle some things around to get demoralizing stare and compounded pain


I'd suggest picking one or two battle tricks to implant, ones you put on yourself for bad situations (mask misery immediately comes to mind) and getting as many useful but situational ones that you can put on when neccessary, such as see in darkness and mesmeric pantomime. Btw playing a spirit walker myself right now in a home game, lots of fun.

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