5 Best RPGs With An Illusionist Class

Key Takeaways

• Illusion magicians in video games rely on intellect over strength to outsmart enemies with apparitions and mental manipulation.
• Games like Baldur’s Gate 3, Guild Wars, and Dragon’s Dogma 2 feature mage classes who excel in using deception to win.
• Illusion-focused classes in these games can specialize in manipulating minds, creating clones, and turning enemies against each other.

Anyone who typically elects to fill the role of a magic user in video games does so for the satisfaction of overcoming their adversaries with brains over brawn. While mastering the elements is one aspect of the mage archetype, another is their mastery over the mind. A real-life magician’s trade is built on their ability to weave illusions, create fantastic phantasms, and deceive their audience.

A truly magical illusionist is the same, except their audience is usually trying to kill them. A good illusionist has the ability to turn their enemies’ power against themselves and win battles through mental manipulation and tactical trickery. This means that they must outwit their enemies indirectly rather than with might. This subtle art can be challenging to implement, especially in a combat-oriented medium, but a few games have managed to pull it out of the hat.

Baldur’s Gate 3 – The Illusionist Wizard

A Specialist Student Of Deception

Since Baldur’s Gate 3 is an incredibly faithful adaptation of fifth-edition D&D, illusion spells pretty much work the same as they would in the pen-and-paper game. Wizards are able to specialize in the School of Illusion, which grants them access to a plethora of deceptive abilities, both for use in and out of combat.

While an illusion specialization is possible at character creation (and highly viable throughout the game), an illusion wizard will have access to a few standard magic spells from the get-go but will have plenty of chances to continue the path of the illusionist. Spells from the School of Illusion are also available to sorcerers and warlocks, but bards, clerics, and even the subclasses arcane tricksters and eldrich knights can make use of them.

Guild Wars – Mesmer

The Masked Master Manipulator

Even amongst other illusionist magicians, Guild Wars‘ mesmer is unique. While this profession’s work may not be outwardly flashy, the mesmer has an explosive spell to dominate, control, and shut down just about every opponent. The effect of their spellcraft takes place in their enemies’ minds. For example, their Empathy spell causes enemies to second-guess their strikes, reducing any damage they would have otherwise dealt to their target and hurting themselves instead.

Mesmers drain their enemy’s energy, a universal resource used to do just about anything, from casting magic to charging an attack, and use it to fuel their manipulations. They are known for their ability to interrupt an enemy, shutting down their power to act, thanks to their ability to cast spells much faster than other professions. The mesmer is not only one of Guild Wars’ most powerful professions but one of the hardest to learn, as their effectiveness relies on the player’s knowledge of other classes and their skills.

The Illustrious School Of Illusion

Every Elder Scrolls game with the illusion branch of magic would count for this list, but Oblivion is technically the last game in the series to feature classes. The mage is an all-rounder magic user, as no other pre-made class can take advantage of spells like Calm, Frenzy, and the much-beloved Invisibility as they can to get a gang of bandits to fight each other while sitting right in the middle of their camp.

All Illusion Magic spells come from Bravil, which is where a budding deception mage should head as soon as they emerge from the sewers. Of course, there’s nothing stopping players from making their own custom class, the “Illusionist,” from a combination of Intelligence and Personality attributes, perhaps with Speechcraft as a major skill for good measure.

Guild Wars 2 – The Mesmer (Chronomancer, Mirage, Virtuoso)

The (Illusionary) Attack Of The Clones

Combat in Guild Wars 2 can be chaotic, but thankfully, the mesmer profession thrives in this kind of climate. Leaning more into the performative illusionist, Guild Wars 2‘s mesmers use a variety of weapons in unusual ways. They brandish torches to spread blindness and become invisible, and they use greatswords as a medium to shoot blasts of arcane energy at long range. However, their primary weapons of choice are their clones and phantasms.

Each time a mesmer attacks, they produce illusionary duplicates of themselves to distract enemies. The mesmer can detonate their clones to stun, interrupt, or damage enemies. Their phantasms mimic the techniques and attacks of other professions, such as the warrior’s lunging jab, while the mesmer stays at a safe distance. Mesmers shatter the boundary between real and fantastic with their ability to teleport, create portals from one place to another, and transform their victims into pink moa birds.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 – The Trickster

Using Deceptive Smoke To Spark Friendly Fire

Thematically and mechanically, Dragon’s Dogma 2‘s trickster vocation is everything a battle illusionist should be: glassy in a one-on-one fight but untouchable with the right combination of weapon skills and spells. The trickster relies on spreading scented, magical smoke across the battlefield that confuses enemies and gets them to turn on one another. They can summon a simulacrum, a phantasmic body double, to draw enemy heat.

Attaching this double to an enemy causes their allies to attack them. By conjuring illusionary floors, enemies can be fooled into running off a cliff to their deaths, and the trickster can even form a dragon out of their deceptive smoke to terrify enemies, causing them to flee. The trickster may sound like a “set and forget” vocation, but playing one requires constant decision-making, experimentation, and action.