My wife is a new-ish player, she has a year of play with a void touched Sorceress and a few months of a cartomancer Witch (after trying a few melee types early on which convinced her that spell casting was the way to go). She traded in her level 6 Witch to give the Mesmerist a try though.
When building the character i was a little concerned about how it would play out: weapon proficiencies and 3/4 BAB but no real good ways to boost them, tricks seemed very limiting, slow spell casting progression... Mrs. Torbyne was apprehensive but really liked the concept so she pushed through with it.
We had each player roll a stat value when we started the campaign and everyone used the same stats, that gave us 17, 14, 14, 12, 12, 12 before racial modifiers. The Mesmerist went with the 17 in CHA and bumped it to 19 with the Human bonus, at 4th level it was at 20 and using level 6 wealth she had a headband bumping it to 22. There were other stats but this was basically the only thing the character needed.
The rest of the group consisted of:
Fighter 4/Rogue 2
Bloodrager 6
Hunter 6
Drunken Qiqong Monk 6
Celestial bloodline Sorcerer 6
We resumed the campaign where we left off, tracking down an exodus of Ogres and trying to mitigate the damage they caused. On the trail she didnt have much to add, the Hunter and Fighter/Rogue handled tracking/survival and knowledge nature checks moving about. The group caught signs of a Wyvern and the Hunter and Fighter/Rogue sneaked up to scout. They came back to the group and planned an assault. Our Mesmerist planted two False Flankers on the Hunter's tiger, some bless and mirror images came out and the group moved in. It was a long shot but the Sorcerer and Mesmerist gave the group away giving away the surprise round before the rest of the group was in position. Here is the round by round break out:
Combat one: 2x Wyverns,
Round 1: Wyverns charge, one to the Hunter's Tiger which missed, second charges the Mesmerist but attack missed due to Mirror Image. Mesmerist defensively casts Blistering Invective to great affect, shaking the enemies for 3 rounds and setting one on fire. Almost triggered a Trick but a hasted Monk moved into a true flanking position so False Flanker wasnted needed. Mesmerist also dropped a stare on a Wyvern but this never did anything.
Round 2: Wyvern hits with its sting through mirror images, Mesmerist fails first Fort save and takes 2 Con damage. Mesmerist responds with defensively casting Blindess/Deafness on the Wyvern and lands the spell, the Wyvern is stared, shaken, on fire and blinded, the group is amused.
Round 3: The Wyverns are dead and a lucky roll kept the Mesmerist from any more Con damage.
Round 4-6: Party scrambles for heal checks and support while Mesmerist deals with a further 6 points of Con damage. Comes out alive at 6 Con at the end.
Some days pass as the group finds a settlement under siege by an Ogre clan. Things are grim here but stranded caravaners promise riches if the party clears the way out and escorts them to a safer city. Mesmerist pulls out all the stops with Honeyed Tongue, Diplomacy, Intimidate, goes nuts on skill checks to eek out everything of value she can from the merchants, they cave in and agree to paying out everything they can for help. The rest of the towns folk dont take kindly to how the party is haggling over their lives but the group goes on to win them over with more diplomacy/magic. On night watch the fighter spots a Troggle at the treeline and the group investigates at first light. Better sneaking and communication results in the Monk, Rogue and Hunter positioned for ambush on an Ogre camp.
Combat two: 1x Troggle Scout, 2X Ogre Bruisers, 1X Ogre Boss, 1x Ogre Cleric (all pulled from Monster Codex)
Round 1: The Mesmerist lands Blindness on the Troggle during the surprise round.
Round 2: Mesmerist drops a Stare on an Ogre and Command on the Troggle to approach her, it eats an AoO from the Bloodrager and fails its acrobatics check which drops it prone.
Round 3: Mesmerist walks past the Troggle and doesnt mind the 8 points of damage from its claw from a blind swipe at her. She switches her Stare target and casts Blistering Invective, shaking three enemies and setting all three on fire. The Rogue/Fighter triggers an implanted Trick for Misdirection on the Ogre Boss but finds out the AC is the same with Flat Footed and he is too far out for sneak attack.
Round 4: Having line of sight on the Ogre Cleric, the Mesmerist stares and uses Command to have it drop its sword.
The Ogres never made it to round 5....
Thoughts on the Class? Sure, i have some.
The 3/4 BAB never came up, Stare was used every round but didnt really do anything (she opted for Will Breaker by the by, i feel the penalty to hit/damage might have been more noticeable) Tricks were implanted and tracked but only activated the one time for what ended up being no effect. Most character wealth was in the Headband with a little bit thrown in for pages of spell knowledge and runestones of power but they werent needed either.
The class is, or at least was played as, a full caster. The limited spell progression might be more noticeable later on but the only attribute she needs in Charisma and that kept the save DCs high enough that even low level spells had a good chance of landing. She had no problem with being near the front with a high miss chance from Mirror Image and a little AC from her chain shirt.
Stare was diligently employed but only came into play with one casting of Command.
The spell list was actually a lot of fun. Always had an interesting option to try and good luck getting the baddies to fail their saves. Liberal use of Blistering Invective to shaken them and hit saves helped some too.
The skills were a lot of fun and she was collecting languages to use with Blistering Invective.
Mental Potency never came into play.
We are taking a break next week but the she plans on sticking with the Mesmerist the following week when we resume play.
