Mesmer

Mesmers are magical duelists who wield deception as a weapon. Using powerful illusions, clones, and phantasmal magic to ensure that their enemies can’t believe their own eyes, mesmers tip the balance of every fight in their favor.

Most memsers have traces of chaos magic in their blood, either from a distant ancestor or by random chance, as is the nature of chaos magic. 

 

This is a slightly modifed version of the subclass made by Vilinde.

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.

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.

 

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. When you and any perfect copies are within 5 feet of the same target, that target has to roll to see which one of you it hits, as described in the mirror image spell.
• 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. 
• 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.) 
• 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. 
• 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

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 any amount of 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 all shatter simultaneously, forcing creatures in a 20 foot radius sphere centered on the target to make a dexterity saving throw. Creatures that fail the saving throw suffer 1d6 force damage per sorcery point spent, or half as much on a success. 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 an enemy 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 need to spend 1 sorcery point when creating clones with Illusionary Combat. 

Distortion

Beginning at 18th level, as a reaction to being targeted by a spell or an attack, you can spend 5 sorcery points to cause all of your clones to teleport to you and destroy themselves, covering your form with their shattered remains. This gives you 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.