Mesmerism and Escapism in Golarion


Occult Adventures Playtest General Discussion


The Mesmerist is pushing pretty heavy to be interpreted as the go-to build for a turn-of-the-century stage magician/Harry Houdini/stage hypnotist type.

So, what's the status of Stage Magic in Golarion, given that actual magic is fairly common? First and second level wands, potions, oils, etc are available at Ye Olde Magick Shoppe at seemingly every major city, capable of performing wonders that would have absolutely floored audiences of 19th century Europe/America. Heck, a working wand of CLW (nearly every low-level group of Pathfinders has one) would probably net James Randi's One Million Dollar Paranormal challenge.

So, if I build an actual stage magician Mesmerist/Escapist, complete with top hat, tux, and pigeons... would anyone care? Would such a person get famous? Would it even be interesting for a guy to dangle in a public square and slip free of his straight jacket or chains, when sorcerers are walking around leveling villages with fireballs and straight-up teleporting?


Well, magic still behaves according to rules, so I suppose an entertainer could perform by appearing to violate those rules.

"Behold, as I deftly evade this unerringly accurate magic missile!" and so forth.


I'd figure magical feats would still be interesting things to see, just not necessarily in the same way as a real world magician's sleight of hand and illusions. Also consider that this could vary on the local culture and education where one is performing. The layman doesn't necessarily know much about magic besides that it exists and some folk can do crazy s+#% with it.


Prestidigitation, man. You can have a juggling act that consists of dropping every single ball but producing new ones to toss into the air. In general, I think you wouldn't have "magic acts" so much as "______ acts, using magic". Comedy, with magic props. Theater, with illusory backdrops. Music, played by summoned creatures. (Okay, so only Summoners are going to get long enough summons for a song; everybody else will be using calling spells.)

Now, psychic spells are cast without any of the usual signs, so that might make for a better show.


I figure you just take all the special effects nad make up from stage shows, and using that and actual magic you create basically TV show level quality stage plays. So when you act out a dragon fight instead of paltry tricks of visual effects theres actually fire the audiance can feel.

There is a lot less of a job for theguy who hypnotises an audience member into quaking though.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

This is what happens when a Wizard attempts stage magic.

Mesmerism is far safer.


This is something I've toyed with for years before Occult Adventures came out. My first Pathfinder character was a Court Bard who made liberal use of ghost sound, silent image, and even summon monster during performances (primarily comedy and oratory, with some acting and singing). More recently I've been strongly toying with a Raksasha-blooded sorcerer swindler in the vein of a travelling Carney. Planned tricks included everything from selling potions of disguise self at an inflated cost ("with just one draught, you will be transformed into your ideal self") to real lif e hypnotism routines ("now what I'm going to do is put you in a deep trance that makes you suggestive to my every whim" with a bluff of +20 while encouraging actual casters to scan for any magical auras). There's nothing wrong with having more than one way to take a mark.

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