Zaq
2009-12-27, 02:29 AM
How would you go about making an equivalent of the Mesmer (http://guildwars.wikia.com/wiki/Mesmer) in D&D? Not just any character who could be considered "mesmerizing" is a proper Mesmer (otherwise you could just grab a Beguiler and be done, but that's too easy). In my mind, these are the primary things that you must be able to do to be a Mesmer:
-Interrupt or harass foes. This is likely represented by some skill at counterspelling, but there might be other ways to do this.
-Punish your foe for doing certain things. "If you do X, you suffer Y consequence" is a good formula. Make them choose if they really want to do what they thought they were going to.
-Steal or utilize an enemy's power. This can be as direct as a Spellthief literally stealing a foe's spells and casting them back, or just an indirect way of fueling your abilities at your opponent's expense.
Please note that the ability to cast fun illusions is not a defining feature of a Mesmer, as I see it. While Illusion Magic is very powerful on a Mesmer, a D&D illusion and a GW illusion are two totally different animals, and the similarity in name really shouldn't matter.
This is a thought experiment rather than an actual character, so I don't have a level in mind, but as with just about everything I propose, the lower level you can get things working, the better. Level 20 builds make me yawn. Level 6 builds are much more interesting. That said, there are no hard and fast limits.
Mesmers are pretty obviously magical, so I'm leaning towards a sorcerer chassis just as default, but that's probably not the only way to go. I think that spontaneous is going to be better than prepared in this case, since a mesmer must be flexible and adapt to individual foes on a round-to-round basis.
So, where should we start? The first criterion is relatively straightforward (just find a way to make counterspelling worthwhile... doable, if not always optimal), but the second two are trickier. It's entirely possible that there's no satisfactory way to do it, but if that's the case, well, at least we tried. This is just fun to think about, so let's see what we can do.
On the topic of what defines a mesmer:
You might disagree with my criteria up top. GW is a robust game, and there's a lot that goes into making up a class. There are many, many, MANY ways to play a mezzie, and certainly there are many very good mesmer builds that don't interrupt, or don't present the enemy with a nasty choice, or don't directly leech power. However, trying to fit everything a mesmer can do into D&D is just a fool's errand. I chose these criteria because I personally think of them when I think about mesmers, even though there's plenty else out there. Some of these things are meaningless in D&D... for example, energy denial doesn't really exist in D&D, nor does fast casting really mean much unless you want to try to quicken everything. I just chose a few select aspects of a mesmer and ran with them. If you don't like them, there's probably a decent reason for it, but you have to start somewhere.
-Interrupt or harass foes. This is likely represented by some skill at counterspelling, but there might be other ways to do this.
-Punish your foe for doing certain things. "If you do X, you suffer Y consequence" is a good formula. Make them choose if they really want to do what they thought they were going to.
-Steal or utilize an enemy's power. This can be as direct as a Spellthief literally stealing a foe's spells and casting them back, or just an indirect way of fueling your abilities at your opponent's expense.
Please note that the ability to cast fun illusions is not a defining feature of a Mesmer, as I see it. While Illusion Magic is very powerful on a Mesmer, a D&D illusion and a GW illusion are two totally different animals, and the similarity in name really shouldn't matter.
This is a thought experiment rather than an actual character, so I don't have a level in mind, but as with just about everything I propose, the lower level you can get things working, the better. Level 20 builds make me yawn. Level 6 builds are much more interesting. That said, there are no hard and fast limits.
Mesmers are pretty obviously magical, so I'm leaning towards a sorcerer chassis just as default, but that's probably not the only way to go. I think that spontaneous is going to be better than prepared in this case, since a mesmer must be flexible and adapt to individual foes on a round-to-round basis.
So, where should we start? The first criterion is relatively straightforward (just find a way to make counterspelling worthwhile... doable, if not always optimal), but the second two are trickier. It's entirely possible that there's no satisfactory way to do it, but if that's the case, well, at least we tried. This is just fun to think about, so let's see what we can do.
On the topic of what defines a mesmer:
You might disagree with my criteria up top. GW is a robust game, and there's a lot that goes into making up a class. There are many, many, MANY ways to play a mezzie, and certainly there are many very good mesmer builds that don't interrupt, or don't present the enemy with a nasty choice, or don't directly leech power. However, trying to fit everything a mesmer can do into D&D is just a fool's errand. I chose these criteria because I personally think of them when I think about mesmers, even though there's plenty else out there. Some of these things are meaningless in D&D... for example, energy denial doesn't really exist in D&D, nor does fast casting really mean much unless you want to try to quicken everything. I just chose a few select aspects of a mesmer and ran with them. If you don't like them, there's probably a decent reason for it, but you have to start somewhere.