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.

Conjure Clone

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

Once per turn when you hit with a weapon or spell attack, you can use a bonus action to conjure 1 clone or phantasm. Illusions 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. 
• Illusions have an AC equal to your spell save DC, an attack bonus equal to your spell attack bonus, hit points equal to your Mesmer level, and a movement speed of 30ft. 
• Illusions must remain within 120ft of you and you must maintain concentration on them. If you lose concentration, all images immediately pop. 
• You can command any number of illusions to move and attack with a bonus action on 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 illusions 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. 
• Your clones can only attack the target of the attack that summoned them. When that target dies, the clones attacking it "pop."

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	4	6
20	4	6

 

 

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.

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.

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 cause any number of your clones to dash at a designated target of your choosing, and shatter. You can spend up to 2 sorcery points per clone, and each of your chosen 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 Combatant

Beginning at 6th level, you can make an additional attack when using the attack action.  Moreover, you can cast one of your cantrips in place of one of those attacks.

In addition, you can spend 2 sorcery points to magically teleport, swapping places with one clone within 120 feet of you.

Illusion of Life

When you reach 14th level, you gain the ability to imbue allies with the illusion of vitality and strength. 

Once per long rest, you can use your action to target one ally within 60 feet of you that has zero hit points. At the start of their turn, the ally must still make a death saving throw (if not already stabilized), but may then take their turn as normal. If the ally kills a creature on their turn, they regain 1/2 their hit points.

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.