Magic missile. Always hits and is a force effect so it extends to the ethereal plane.
I don't think magic missile will work... the blink spell says:
"Any individually targeted spell has a 50% chance to fail against you while you're blinking unless your attacker can target invisible, ethereal creatures."
even if magic missile can affect the ethereal plane it cannot strike a creature with full concealment...
"The missile strikes unerringly, even if the target is in melee combat, so long as it has less than total cover or total concealment."
I suppose a magic missile would work if the caster could also see invisible
I don't think magic missile will work... the blink spell says:
"Any individually targeted spell has a 50% chance to fail against you while you're blinking unless your attacker can target invisible, ethereal creatures."Since magic missile normally can't cross planar boundaries, I don't see how it could not have the 50% fail chance.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/special-abilities#TOC-Ethereal
For reference.
note I edited.
Magic missile was just the first force spell that came to mind. An aoe force effect would probably be simpler. Something like blade barrier.
I agree that blade barrier would work fine.
"Force effects and abjurations affect you normally. Their effects extend onto the Ethereal Plane from the Material Plane" http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/spells/blink.html
Magic Missile would still affect you.
"Force effects and abjurations affect you normally. Their effects extend onto the Ethereal Plane from the Material Plane" http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/spells/blink.html
Magic Missile would still affect you.
I don't think magic missile will work... the blink spell says:
"Any individually targeted spell has a 50% chance to fail against you while you're blinking unless your attacker can target invisible, ethereal creatures."even if magic missile can affect the ethereal plane it cannot strike a creature with full concealment...
"The missile strikes unerringly, even if the target is in melee combat, so long as it has less than total cover or total concealment."I suppose a magic missile would work if the caster could also see invisible
Note that an invisible creature has total concealment... meaning unless the caster can see invisible the magic missile doesn't unerringly strike... meaning that it has the 50% failure chance (the sections in quotation marks above are taken directly from the blink and magic missile spells respectively).
If the attack is capable of striking ethereal creatures, the miss chance is only 20% (for concealment).
Since Magic Missile is capable of striking ethereal creatures the miss chance is 20%. Magic Missile bypasses any miss chance less than 50%. Thus, Magic Missile completely ignores Blink.
On the other hand, Spiritual Ally (also a force effect) has a 20% miss chance but must still roll that miss chance.
Blink is not invisibility. Blink is where you are occupying two different planes in rapid succession. One is Ethereal, where you count as invisible and are unable to be affected by anything except for abjurations and force effects. The other is Material where you are not invisible. The invisibility and ethereal qualifiers are to determine what section of blink is negated.
There are really only 3 options here:
A) You cannot strike ethereal or invisible targets. The Miss chance is 50%.
B) You can strike ethereal OR invisible targets. The miss chance is 20%.
C) You can strike invisible AND ethereal targets. The miss chance is negated.
- Gauss
Although you are only partially visible, you are not considered invisible and targets retain their Dexterity bonus to AC against your attacks.
This is taken straight from the spell description of blink. If you are not considered invisible you are not considered to have total-concealment. Magic missile would therefore be effective against you.
hmmm...
Note that an invisible creature has total concealment... meaning unless the caster can see invisible the magic missile doesn't unerringly strike... meaning that it has the 50% failure chance (the sections in quotation marks above are taken directly from the blink and magic missile spells respectively).
I think you may have confused Blink and Vanish.
"Any individually targeted spell has a 50% chance to fail against you while you're blinking unless your attacker can target invisible, ethereal creatures."
is from the blink spell, not vanish.
magic missile cannot target invisible creatures (ethereal or not) unless the caster can see them some how.
"Target or Targets: Some spells have a target or targets. You cast these spells on creatures or objects, as defined by the spell itself. You must be able to see or touch the target..."
however this line:
"Although you are only partially visible, you are not considered invisible and targets retain their Dexterity bonus to AC against your attacks."
makes it a stickier situation...
cwslyclgh:
It also states that if you can target Ethereal creatures but you cannot see invisibility the miss chance drops to 20%. Do you dispute this line?
- Gauss
I do not... but you can't target ethereal creatures with a magic missile spell if you can't see them (see my quite about spell targeting, which combined with 'unless your attacker can target invisible...' is getting me hung up).
There are two qualifiers. Invisible and ethereal. Remove one and you only have 20%. Seems pretty simple.
- Gauss
I am talking about the general targeting rules... forget the blink spell exists for a moment... you can't target an ethereal creature with magic missile normally because you can't see them (a requirement of all spells with a Target: line in the stat block, unless specifically over-ridden by the spell description). If, however, you can see them you can target them because MM is a force effect.
Now bringing back in the blink spell, one would still have to be able to see invisible creatures to be able to target it with a magic missile spell, the blink spell doesn't say invisible or ethereal creatures, the use of a comma indicates it should be read invisible and ethereal creatures. Simply being able to damage them with a magic missile because it is a force effect is not enough to avoid the 50% fail rate, it is about being able to target them.
This is assuming that the blinker is actually invisible when he blinks out, which another line of the spell description throws into doubt, but that is neither here nor there at the moment, as that line is talking specifically whether opponents retain their dex bonus to AC against you or not, and we are taking specifically about blinks interaction with spells.
I would agree with you on the issue of it saying "invisible, ethereal creatures," but the line on the bottom specifically states that "Force effects and abjurations affect you normally" so I rule Magic Missile can hit.
cwslyclgh, you are NOT invisible the entire time when you are blinking. You are invisible part of the time while blinking. Everyone still knows where you are and can still see you part of the time.
I cast blink, I am now blinking back and forth between ethereal and material planes. While ethereal I am invisible and can only be struck by force effects and abjuration effects. While material neither of those cases apply.
Check:
Can you strike invisible and ethereal creatures? No. 50% miss chance. Yes: 0% miss chance.
Can you strike invisible OR ethereal creatures? Yes. 20% miss chance
This latter part is where you either:
See the invisible creature while they are ethereal and thus the 20% miss chance represents you swinging and missing while they are ethereal.
OR
You do not see them while they are ethereal but you can hit ethereal creatures. Since they are only invisible part of the time they do not gain 50% concealment, it is reduced to 20%.
Magic Missile can strike ethereal creatures, since I am only invisible while I am on the ethereal plane (ie: part of the time) the miss chance drops to 20%. 20% is not total concealment and so Magic Missile can hit automatically.
- Gauss