I had a random thought the other day about the lack of illusion spells in 13th Age and the fact that of all the Wizard specialist builds Illusionist has (arguably) been the most popular historically, and yet the only one we've gotten is the Necromancer (thanks to 13 True Ways). Don't take that as a complaint against the Necromancer; it's never been well done (or even fully realized) in D&D, but 13th Age has knocked it out of the park!
Speaking of which, a review/impressions of 13 True Ways is forthcoming (as a Kickstarter backer I've had the PDF since the 27th), but I'm still reading through it. Since it doesn't include an Illusionist, and none of the popular fan-made classes have been an Illusionist, I was thinking about how one might approach the archetype in 13th Age. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that you can make one pretty much using the existing material. Here is one such approach. I'm leaving out Icons, Backgrounds, and OUT because it's more fun for a player to come up with that stuff on their own. The point of this post is more to illustrate a concept than to provide a finished character.
Race: Gnome
Class: Bard
Level: 1
Ability Scores (tinker as desired):
Str 8, Dex 16 (class), Con 10, Int 18 (race), Wis 14, Cha 12
AC: 15
PD: 11
MD: 14
HP: 21
Recovery: 1d8+0
Talents:
Loremaster (replace Cha with Int, choose either of the other two benefits)
Battle Skald
Jack of Spells
Since Illusionists are traditionally Intelligence-based, it seemed appropriate to do the same here despite using the Bard class. Conveniently, Loremaster ensures that there's no conflict here. Battle Skald might seem like an odd choice but one of the key concepts of this build is that Battle Chant is going to be flavored as your bread-and-butter at-will illusions. What exactly the illusion does will depend on the roll, and the damage can represent the loss of morale, growing frustration or fear, or simply the illusion causing the target to open their defenses such that an ally can exploit it. Part of the fun of playing an Illusionist is letting your creativity run wild; even in D&D where options are usually pretty rigidly defined, illusion spells have always been an oasis of free-form improvisation.
Racial Powers:
Confounding
Minor Illusions
Powers and Spells:
Battle Chant
Befuddle
Terror (Necromancer), Blur (Wizard), or Ways of the Dark (Druid)
Stay Strong!, Move It!, We Need You!
So we've already established that Battle Chant will be flavored as your every day illusions. What else do illusions do mechanically? Well, they're intrinsically all about confusing your opponents and so any spell that applies the Confused condition is pure gold. Bards do a lot of this, and Befuddle is your first workhorse. You've got a few options for Jack of Spells, but Terror does a good job of emulating a terrifying illusion that causes any sane person to flee. Blur represents an illusion applied to yourself (and could provide a useful defensive boost since this build is pretty squishy), and Ways of the Dark is a good way of creating the illusion that you (the caster) aren't even there.
As far as Battle Cries are concerned, notice that we're not taking the staple Pull It Together! Illusionists aren't really about healing, so as tempting as it is the pick this up it's not really on-theme. Illusions can, however, distract an enemy long enough to let an ally disengage or make a save, and Stay Strong! could represent a defensive illusion along the lines of Blur or Mirror Image, or it could also simply be a distracting illusion.
Feats: Battle Chant
Even if Illusionists are more about control and misdirection, you still want to contribute to damage. HP are an abstraction anyways, so keep in mind that you're not necessarily dealing physical wounds and play that up. If you're the one to deal the "killing blow" to an enemy, try to think more along the lines of taking them out of the conflict as opposed to actually knocking them unconscious. A distracted mind could lead to physical harm, sure, but it can be just as interesting if the enemy flees out of fear, or simply because they're chasing something that's not there!
Level 5
So let's check in with our Gnome Illusionist now that we've achieved Champion tier. While it doesn't matter quite yet with the array I've chosen (all evens), at level 4 we've boosted INT because it's the primary attack ability of the Loremaster Bard, as well as the Wizard and Necromancer, two highly useful classes to Jack spells from. It's also probably a good idea to boost WIS (the Cleric and Druid both offer attractive options for Spell-Jacking as well, not to mention that it contributes to AC) and Dex (again, we're thinking about AC here but Initiative is also important, and besides that if you ever need to actually hit something with a melee weapon you can use Dex for that as a Bard).
Now let's see what's changed.
3rd Level Spells:
Befuddle
Vicious Mockery
Song of Spilt Blood
5th Level Spells:
Battle Chant
Discombobulate
Terror (Necromancer)
AND/OR Cause Fear (Cleric)
AND/OR Ways of the Dark (Druid)
AND/OR one of the following Wizard spells:
Color Spray
Confusion
Rebuke
Denial
Blur
Invisibility
Battle Cries:
Take Heart!
Move It!
Stay Strong!
It's All Yours!
Feats:
1. Battle Chant (A)
2. Battle Skald (A)
3. It's All Yours! (A)
4. Befuddle (A)
5. Jack of Spells (C)
Note that I've taken the Champion feat for Jack of Spells without first taking the Adventurer feat, as per the optional rule that GMs can allow players to take higher tier feats if they don't build off of the lower tier feat. I don't consider the "use X ability in place of Y" feats particularly useful since you'll generally only get 1 spell from another class with these Talents, and they're usually Daily options. Combined with the fact that spells are usually pretty accurate since they target PD or MD, I fail to see how a +2 1/day is that big of a deal (assuming you're trying to boost a WIS spell from the Cleric or Druid). Not to mention the fact that most Illusionists will probably pick a Necromancer or Wizard spell anyways, and so everything you've got probably uses INT. Thus, the Adventurer tier feat for Jack of Spells will either do nothing or not much (Jacking Terror from the Necromancer is probably your best bet), and so if your GM insists that you take it before the Champion feat they're just being a jerk.
Level 10
So what does this Illusionist look like at the end game? Let's find out!
Spells (all 9th Level):
Battle Chant
Discombobulate
Befuddle
Vicious Mockery
Song of Spilt Blood
Song of Victory
Song of Destinies
Terror (Necromancer)
Cause Fear (Cleric)
one of the previously mentioned Wizard spells
OR Ways of the Dark (Druid)
By the time you reach Epic tier you should probably have BOTH Terror and Cause Fear because the concept of creating an illusion so frightening that your opponent wets their pants and runs for the hills is just too fun to pass up. The Wizard offers a ton of strong options that can be flavored as Illusion spells, but if you want an at-will alternative to Battle Chant you'll probably want to pick up Ways of the Dark from the Druid. Although Color Spray just might be good enough as a cyclic spell, since by now you'll have enough options to keep you pretty busy.
The songs might come across as a bit odd on an Illusionist, but you don't have to literally sing them. Just say they're illusions that require some concentration to sustain. Some of these are a bit of a stretch, but ultimately I went with the options that fit the concept best, if not 100% perfectly. Again, I'll reiterate that even though you're using the Bard class you'll mostly be staying away from healing options. You might want to just tell your party that you're playing an Illusionist and re-name all of your spells so they don't get false expectations when they hear you say "Bard."
Battle Cries:
Take Heart!
Move It!
Stay Strong!
It's All Yours!
Victory is Ours!
They Fall Before Us!
The Time is Now!
Feats:
1. Battle Chant (A)
2. Battle Skald (A)
3. It's All Yours! (A)
4. Befuddle (A)
5. Jack of Spells (C)
6. Battle Skald (C)
7. It's All Yours! (C)
8. Jack of Spells (E)
9. They Fall Before Us! (E)
10. Confounding (C)
Obviously feats are where an individual player has the most leeway. They're designed to allow you to specialize in certain areas, and Bards (especially those with Jack of Spells) tend to have a lot of options that can be improved via feats. The most important feats are Jack of Spells (because other classes have excellent options that can easily be flavored as Illusions, and having a bunch of stuff that fits well also serves to dilute those options (like some of the songs) that are a bit more borderline) and that first Battle Chant feat (because you'll really want to avoid swinging a melee weapon; an Illusionist is a spellcaster, and you're trying to create the feel of a Wizard more than a duelist Bard!).
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