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The title says it. My problem is, I have a player with a Mesmerist and we have a disagreement as to when certain tricks are activated. This is import because he favors the illusionary smoke trick. He says it activates as soon as I decide he is the target, thus a he gains his concealment against my attacks. I say that the first attack, say from a ranged attack does not trigger it, and should therefore be against normal AC. Then the following attacks would be against concealment. I just don't see how he can activate this trick just because someone thought "Hey I'm going to attack that guy." What if he is completely unaware that he about to be attacked. Snipers, invisible enemies, etc.
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Do you mean Spectral Smoke? Because that trick specifically says it may be activated any time their subject is targeted by an attack (spell or mundane) that requires an attack roll, not the second time they are targeted.(Using a spell to attack typically only happens once from any particular enemy, thus your interpretation would not allow this trick to function against most spells(with attack rolls) which the trick specifically should work against)
"Spectral Smoke: A cloud of smoke pops up around the subject, foiling attacks. The mesmerist can trigger this trick when the subject is targeted by an attack or by a spell that requires an attack roll."
Remember, there are plenty of abilities in the game which function in a similar way. Such as "Deflect Arrow" and several Swashbuckler Deeds. If you are looking for "do the rules support me or the player?", they definitely support the player here.
I would probably rule that the mesmerist must be aware of the attack to trigger it (similar to deflect arrow), since he has to take an action to do so. If an assassin is invisibly waiting with his crossbow until the target passes his way, effectively surprising him (yes, I know free actions are allowed in surprise rounds), why should the mesmerist suddenly become allseeing and allknowing and take the action to trigger it?
But as written Lorewalker is right. It was probably so intended, too, but the fluff description is horrible. They shouldn't have tried to give reasons how an ability works, it is the medichloriana thing all over again.