Cult Master Mesmerist: Am I Getting This Right?


Advice

Shadow Lodge

Fanatical Stare replaces Painful Stare, but not Hypnotic Stare. Does this mean he can only have either Hypnotic Stare active (with accompanying Boldness) against a foe, or Fanatical Stare active on a team-mate, but not both at once?

Since the standard Mesmerist's Painful Stare works as a part of Hypnotic Stare on the same target, it lower's the target's Will save and makes them take more damage; having Fanatical Stare active on a team-mate would do mostly the same thing, though the Fanatic buddy could get the attack/damage bonus on other targets. On the other hand, it sounds like they'd be mutually exclusive effects, seeing as you can Stare at only one person at a time. Then, it'd be a choice of, "Do I put my Boldness against that guy to slow him down, or inspire my friend to hit him harder?"

Characterization Tangent:
Also, I want to defy the expectation of Evil-aligned Mesmerists, by making a LG Cult Master from Alvis (in southern Andoran) who isn't starting a cult. Instead, he's a magical psychotherapist, giving self-confidence and focus to people who need it.

*tugs suspenders* "Now, I'm no big-city enchanter with a fancy spellbook or a fairy dragon, but I've learned that positive encouragement can do more for one's sanity than a whole cellar full of potions and scrolls."


The Shifty Mongoose wrote:
On the other hand, it sounds like they'd be mutually exclusive effects, seeing as you can Stare at only one person at a time. Then, it'd be a choice of, "Do I put my Boldness against that guy to slow him down, or inspire my friend to hit him harder?"

Yeah, it's pretty explicit that Stare is a one-at-a-time thing requiring your (near) full attention. I would bolster my friends most of the time but every once in a while it would be good to put the fear of god into some lowlife to get him back on the straight and narrow.

The Shifty Mongoose wrote:
*tugs suspenders* "Now, I'm no big-city enchanter with a fancy spellbook or a fairy dragon, but I've learned that positive encouragement can do more for one's sanity than a whole cellar full of potions and scrolls."

Read in the voice of Foghorn Leghorn

Shadow Lodge

Right, so that would mean I'd only give the Stare that lowers Will saves to people I wouldn't want to fight. I should bick Boldness that centers around lowering stuff like Initiative, Sense Motive or Perception; if a fight does break out, then I'd switch to Staring at a friend to help them protect me.

Also, his False Healing will have to come in the form of inspirational slogans:

"Just a scratch; only a flesh wound. You've had worse!"

"Don't you go dying on me!"

"Never give up! Trust your instincts!"

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