Mesmerist Discussion and Questions.

[NeverSleeps]

As somebody who's had his staple character type be "Summoning lots of things with Arcane" in 3.x this Mesmerist class has been a bunch of fun for me to build, but I did have one question regarding A specific spell.

Is Instigate Psychic Duel good for Mesmerists? The flavor makes it seem like it would be, on the other hand, I'm having trouble understanding the point of the spell, and what the actual point of entering a psychic duel is. Any thoughts from the folks here?

I'm making a level 17 Mesmerist backup character, and wondered if Instigate would be a good way for me to take out mid-leveled nuisances, or assassinate folks untraceably.

Relatedly, thoughts on your 'favorite' spells/features regarding the Mesmerist? Perhaps things to consider knowing I won't be able to fully stretch my social potential because the bard of the party is the 'face'

[CockroachTeaParty]

The psychic duel rules are kind of a cumbersome, ponderous, wasteful mess. The real benefit of the instigate spell is that it leaves your opponent basically defenseless in the 'real' world. You can just concentrate on defense while your allies beat your victim up, making it sort of like Maze. It's risky, and prevents you from doing other things, though. At level 17 you've probably got better options for single-target lockdown. That said, you can use it to kill someone in a public place with little chance of being caught, so it might have some social/intrigue/RP potential depending on the type of game.