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So I've been GMing Pathfinder for friends for awhile now
(mostly homebrew)
And I finally got around to reading the occult adventures book.
Which brought out a lot of interesting ideas.
Seeing the mesmerist class and the nifty abilities it gets got me thinking of possible villain ideas (ie a legato type character)
With the addition of the nemesis guidelines in UI I thought it'd be the perfect type of character to go with my current setting.
However here's my issue.
A mesmerist is a gish class by nature and while it does have some neat mind control abilities, it seems to be more melee/team combat oriented.
So how would I go about making an effective nemesis out of this?
Should I even use this or just go for a different class (such as a enchantment focused sorcerer)?
Or should I drop classes all together and give it abilities?
I would like to make this enemy memorable in a way and have an entrance set up so any and all advice is helpful.
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Cult Master archetype is your friend.
Have them "kill" the guy a few times, only for them to be cat's paws and mind controlled victims.
Have him first be presented as an ally, and appear in disguise via mestage spells.
I don't know anything about the entrance itself, but this should help make the final battle memorable.
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The answer to your question is minions.
The Mesmerist isn't really a gish without some effort, and certainly doesn't need to be. It is a party-buffer to some degree...but that works just as well to have a main villain buff his minions. which a mind-control master should certainly have.
Cult Master is a good plan, too, but what you really need are minions.
If you don't want a gish-type then an enchantment-focused sorceror would work very well.
So would a succubus (throw in the free mind-reading and shapechange abilities, plus teleportation, for lots of easy know-what-sup and get-away -- plus you can have an Even Bigger Boss in the background who keeps summoning the succubus, or one of her sisters, back if the players destroy her.)
One very important thing to keep in mind with a mind-controlling BBEG
is that it's very easy to do party wipes with them. (Control someone in the PC group, BIG power swing, dead party.) You may want to consider how the PCs are going to protect themselves, and what happens if they do not. (This is where the controller-type with charm and suggestion and all-round popularity might work out better than the one whose go-to spell for all problems is dominate.)
Finally, keep in mind that some players REALLY don't like their character being controlled. Figure out if yours are like this (maybe by having a low-level villain with charm person try to use it on them early in the campaign).
I would be interested to read more on your ideas for this BBEG.
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Watch Jessica Jones for an example of the archetypal mesmerist mind controller. Really is excellent at showing how powerful a mind controller can be without dominating the PCs.
PCs being dominated/held/knocked unconscious/made to run away is not fun for PCs.
A world where the people around you might do anything at any time because the enemy mesmerist is always one step ahead is very interesting.
you could also make them a psychic, if you want something more full casty. right now i'm playing in a campaign with a mind controlling villain, and one way to make your PCs remember hum is to have him attack them by proxy before the know who/where he is. so random NPCs, or better yet, NPCs who the party thinks of as allies attack them, possibly mentioning the name of the mind controller, and then suicide while smiling when they start to lose.
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The answer to your question is minions.
The Mesmerist isn't really a gish without some effort, and certainly doesn't need to be. It is a party-buffer to some degree...but that works just as well to have a main villain buff his minions. which a mind-control master should certainly have.
Cult Master is a good plan, too, but what you really need are minions.
Yeah the archetype seems pretty interesting and would probably fit a nemesis type character I'll look into it but keep my options open.
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Well David Tenant was an excellent purple man I don't know if what I want is a naive sociopath. I'm more leaning towards a villain who makes the players jump through hoops to avoid them from seeing the real problems.
So yeah I don't intend to make the mesmerist dominate the PC's just have him turn yesterday's friends into enemies and give a general sense of paranoia to the PC's.
Ammogromin: If you're familiar with the Mass Effect series, the Illusive Man is the perfect personality type for the type of villain you're going for. He doesn't actually have any powers (not until the end, anyways), but through sheer guile and charisma, he strung the protagonist along for an entire game. Look up [s]devious son-of-a-b!@!*[/i] "the Illusive Man Mass Effect" to see what I'm talking about.
BBEG means Big Bad Evil Guy, the main villain of the campaign.
Ammo: All you pretty much need for a "perfect" save file in 3 is to make all Paragon choices in the previous games. No joke. Renegade really screws you over, and you'll spend more hours looking at walkthoughs than actually playing the game if you want to maximize your war assets.
And a piece of advice, if you do eventually get around to playing 3: Don't make the deal with the dalatrass. It is so, so not worth it.