Mesmer

Your innate magic comes from shadow magic that was mingled with your blood or that of your ancestors.  Most often, sorcerers with this origin trace their lineage back to a powerful wizard who infused the shadow material illusions are made from into their very being.  Alternatively, a sorcerer with this bloodline could be new, having done some sort of experimentation to gain such control over shadow stuff.

Martial Training

As a mesmer, you supplement your spellcasting with some martial talent.  You gain proficiency in light armor, shields, and a martial weapon of your choice.

Illusions

Your magic creates and manipulates two types of illusions of yourself: clones and phantasms.

Clones or phantasms appear within 5ft. of you and are able to use their movement (30ft.) as an immediate action.

Clones: 

• Appear as shadowy copies- easily discernible by a creature that they are an illusion. 
• You can spend 2 sorcery points to make any copies within a 30ft radius of you look like perfect copies, following the mirror image spell description. 
• They have an AC equal to your spell save DC, an attack bonus equal to your spell to hit bonus, hit points equal to 1/2 of your hit points, and a movement speed of 30ft. 
• They must remain within 120ft of you and you must maintain concentration on them. If you lose concentration, all images immediately pop. 
• Once per short rest, if you lose concentration you can use a reaction and spend sorcery points to cause all active clones to immediately shatter where they stand, following the same rules as Shatter below. 
• You can command any number of them to move and attack with a bonus action at the start of each of your turns, dealing damage equal to your proficiency bonus on a successful hit. Their attacks mimic the damage type, range, and visual appearance of the attack or spell that created them. 
• When they are killed or shattered they "pop" vanishing with a dramatic flair unique to the caster.  (For example, they could disappear into a cloud of butterflies that quickly disperses.)  
• You can have a maximum number of clones active at a time as shown on the chart below, if more were ever to be created, one pops as the new one is formed.

Level	Number of Clones Active	Damage
1	1	2
5	2	3
9	2	4
10	3	4
13	3	5
15	3	5
17	3	6
20	3	6

 

Phantasms: Appear as translucent, monochromatic copies of the caster.  These illusions cast a single non-concentration spell, then, at the start of the turn following casting that spell, they will fade and disappear, unless the caster spends a bonus action to turn them into a clone.

Phantasmal Casting: Your magic flows through the illusions you create.  When casting a spell of first level or higher targeting an enemy and that isn’t a concentration spell, as part of your action you can choose to create a phantasm to cast it instead of yourself.  The phantasm appears within 5ft. of you and can immediately use it’s movement (30ft.). The spell originates from the phantasm instead of yourself. You can do this for free once per short rest, after that it requires spending 1 sorcery point.

Shatter: When you discover sorcery points you gain the ability to shatter your clones, causing them to violently pop, damaging nearby creatures. As a bonus action, you can spend 5 sorcery points to cause all of your clones to dash at a designated target of your choosing, and shatter.  All of your clones immediately move up to double their movement speed toward their target. Upon reaching a square adjacent to their target, they shatter, dealing 1d6 slashing damage per sorcery point spent in a 20 foot radius burst. A successful dexterity saving throw reduces this damage by half.  If any of the clones do not reach their target with their movement they do not shatter and remain in effect.

Illusionary Combat

Beginning at 6th level, you can make an additional attack when using the attack action. 

In addition, when hitting with a damaging attack or cantrip, you can spend 1 sorcery point as a bonus action to create a clone.

Improved Illusionary Combat

Beginning at 14th level, you no longer must spend 1 sorcery point when creating clones with Illusionary Combat

Distortion

Beginning at 18th level, as a reaction, you can spend 5 sorcery points to cause all of your clones to teleport to you and destroy themselves, covering your form with a cloud of shadow stuff.  This gives you a form of total cover for a number of rounds equal to the number of clones destroyed.  This cover does not hinder your line of sight at all and does not give enemies cover from you. During this time the caster appears completely obscured by the same thing that their clones "pop" into.