Is it possible for this to truly be a viable PC? I love the idea of a Gnome Illusionist, I'm just not sure I can really contribute much of value to a party with this concept.
Thoughts? Suggestion?
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You can absolutely contribute, but Illusionists, more than any other archetype, require an abundance of creativity on the part of the player, and a willingness to participate on the part of the DM.
For example, in a combat situation, the arcane trickster in a group I play with used Silent Image to create an exact copy of the party Anti-Paladin. It worked, essentially, like a single mirror image, and the monster they were fighting failed it's save against it the first time, but passed the save when it attempted to claw the image (50/50 chance).
There are lots of great things you can do with illusions, but it all boils down to your creativity. Illusions, arguably more than any other spell category, require direct player involvement. Evocations take tactics, but Illusions take brilliance.
A gnome Illusionist could certainly be viable. Color Spray can win many fights at lower levels, and Mirror Image is a great defensive spell. You can even turn Invisible and summon monsters (which may or may not be completely real). Gnomes even get a bonus when casting Illusion spells, so you'll be especially well suited to the role.
My advice is to consider retaining access to either Conjuration or Evocation so that you'll have a few direct damage or summoning spells to fall back on when mindless foes appear. Another way to go would be to have some buffs like Haste and such to help the other PCs take care of undead and such for you.
Another way to do a gnome Illusionist is as a bard. Bards have access to a lot of illusion and charm spells. Since gnomes get a bonus to CHA instead of INT this works out well.
All good information, thank you :)
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You will need ways to be efficient against monsters which are immune to mind-affecting stuff.
Going Dirge Bard will take care of the Undead. A 1-level dip in crossblooded Sorcerer gives you a choice between the Verdant (affect plants), Pestilence (affect vermins) and Serpentine (affect a bunch of creatures as if they were humanoids who speak your language : great for charms).
If you want to focus on getting the max out of Color Spray, a 1-level dip in Oracle (Heavens) will ensure it stays useful for a long time and an additional level will give you even more castings of it. Then a 2-level dip in Barbarian will open the way for the RageCaster ability of the Rage Prophet.
Is it possible for this to truly be a viable PC? I love the idea of a Gnome Illusionist, I'm just not sure I can really contribute much of value to a party with this concept.
Thoughts? Suggestion?
Honestly, I find the two main factors to a Gnome Illusionist's viability tend to be separate from the mechanics... which is to say the PC's creativity and how the GM deals (or has foes deal) with illusions. Since Illusions can literally be of ANYTHING, it can be a little difficult to anticipate the appropriate reactions.
A high level color spray can stun lock bosses for many levels. Then once a wizard gets decent level you have a enough to take care of anything.
Grease is a great 1st level spell that can shut down mosnters when your melee buddies are around it
i made thee suggestions in another thread but i figured id post here too since its the same topic. 3 points on a gnome sorcerer - illusionist
1) taking the trait 'magical lineage' is a good idea. what i did with it is to choose ghost sound. the reason for this is that you can add the metamagic feat 'threatening illusion' to it and still have it be a 0 level spell you can cast whenever which can flank 1 target who fails the save. helps for letting rogues get sneak attack, or if you win initiative maybe let some people charge into a flank by putting it on the opposite side of the bad guys. really not bad for a spell that doesn't cost anything but a standard action(and no resources).
2) the feat 'effortless trickery' lets you maintain an illusion spell as a swift action instead of a standard. what i like to do is cast major image when i wake up in the morning(or minor image at lower levels), and have it shaped as something weird (ie no knowledge check would work on it, because of my bloodline(anarchy for my character) i call it a chaos elemental named bob :) ). This is just a nice little thing to have around, maintain it all day (basically giving up all your swift actions) to have it enter rooms to possibly set off ambushes, create giant glowing arrows above peoples heads to draw attention to them, or anything you can think to make it do. i once was in a area of silence with possibly aggressive people and used it to make a glowing sign in the air to communicate that we came in peace. plus once you can cast 4th level spells you can add threatening illusion to it too to have a constant flanker for people (with level 4 spells you can also indefinitely maintain a shadow conjuration 'rain of frogs', which is just funny). plus it gives another ongoing illusion to use in the point below.
3) the feat 'shadow gambit' fits well in that it allows you to do 'real' damage(not a lot, only 1d6 per level of the spell, but its real) with your figment illusions. as a standard action you can destroy one of your ongoing illusions to do damage to someone. the neat thing is you choose what damage it does based on what you make the illusion do. turn it into a bunch of swords that rush at your enemy (doing a ranged touch attack that does slashing damage) or make it turn into a bucket of acid that pours on their head (and have them take acid damage with a reflex save for half). i have a lot of fun coming up with imaginative ways to make enemies take damage, plus its very versatile for doing the type of damage you need to do (ie fire/acid vs trolls or whatever). also note that its any figment illusion it works on. your mirror image spell down to its last image? turn that image of you into a version of you that spits fire, making them take 2d6 fire (save for half) or make that image of you suddenly throw a ton of daggers making a ranged touch for piercing damage. then you can cast another mirror image if necessary and do it again when it gets low. not super powerful but very fun.
also id like to recommend the 'trickster' trait, it comes in handy
hope this helps, makes a pretty handy/versatile character in PFS so far (mine is level 7)
Gnome illusionists are limited only by imagination - as above. They are certainly viable as not everything has to be about damage.