Umbral Mesmerist

Trained in secret, umbral mesmerists spend years learning how to shape terrifying creatures from the inky darkness in which they revel.

Diminished Spellcasting: An umbral mesmerist can cast one fewer spell of each level than normal. If this reduces the number of spells for a level to 0, he can cast spells of that level only if his Charisma score allows bonus spells of that level.

This ability alters the mesmerist’s spellcasting.

Shadow Summoning (Sp)

An umbral mesmerist gains the ability to summon quasi-real creatures as per summon monster I a number of times per day equal to 3 + his Charisma modifier. The umbral mesmerist can use this ability as a standard action, and the creatures remain for 1 minute per level (instead of 1 round per level). The creatures summoned are only partly real, but have normal effects unless a creature affected by the illusion succeeds at a Will save to disbelieve (as per shadow conjuration.) The DC for this save is equal to 10 + 1/2 the umbral mesmerist’s mesmerist level + the umbral mesmerist’s Charisma modifier. This is an illusion with the shadow descriptor.

A shadow creature has half the hit points of a normal creature of its kind (regardless of whether it is recognized as a shadow creature). It deals the normal amount of damage and has all of the base creature’s normal abilities and weaknesses. Against a creature that recognizes it as a shadow creature, however, the shadow creature’s damage is halved, and all special abilities that do not deal lethal damage are only 50% likely to work. (Roll for each use and each affected character separately.) Furthermore, the shadow creature’s AC bonuses are halved. A creature that succeeds at its save to disbelieve sees the summoned creature as transparent images superimposed on vague, shadowy forms. Objects automatically succeed at their Will saves against this spell. The umbral mesmerist cannot use this ability to summon creatures from more than one summon monster spell in this way at one time.

At 4th level and every 4 mesmerist levels thereafter, the power of this ability increases by 1 spell level, allowing the umbral mesmerist to summon more powerful creatures (to a maximum of summon monster VI at 20th level).

This ability replaces the mesmerist tricks gained at 1st, 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 20th levels.

Umbral Solipsism (Su)

At 2nd level, when a creature attempts a Will save to disbelieve a quasi-real creature created by shadow summoning, it takes a penalty on the save equal to the mesmerist’s Charisma modifier (minimum 0).

This ability replaces towering ego.

Ephemeral Stare (Su)

At 5th level, the umbral mesmerist is treated as if he were invisible by the target of his hypnotic stare (as per the invisibility spell), provided neither he nor any creatures conjured by shadow summoning take hostile actions against the target. Once the umbral mesmerist or any creature conjured by his shadow summoning ability takes a hostile action against the target, the mesmerist becomes visible to the target and the target cannot be affected again by that umbral mesmerist’s ephemeral stare ability for 24 hours (although it can be affected by other effects of his hypnotic stare).

This ability replaces mental potency.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Occult Realms © 2015, Paizo Inc.; Authors: Robert Brookes, Thurston Hillman, Thomas M. Reed, and Mark Seifter.

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