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This will rely on the grandfathering of 3.5.
In 3.5 if I recall, an incorporeal creature was explained as one existing partially in both the material and ethereal planes simultaneously.
That said, if a blinking creature attacked an incorporeal one, how would that be resolved?
A - incorporeal creature gets full effect (as they only partially exist on the ethereal plane).
B - blinking creature attacks normally (as they can make their attacks while on the ethereal plane).
Assuming a melee attack without ghost touch or a similar effect.
That said, if a blinking creature attacked an incorporeal one, how would that be resolved?
Blink: "Likewise, your own attacks have a 20% miss chance, since you sometimes go ethereal just as you are about to strike."
Blink: "An ethereal creature is ... incorporeal"
Incorporeal: "Incorporeal creatures take full damage from other incorporeal creatures and effects"
So I think it boils down to this:
Blinker with magic weapon: Roll percentile. 20% chance to deal full damage, 80% chance to deal half.
Blinker with non-magic weapon: Roll percentile. 20% chance to deal full damage, 80% chance to deal no damage.
Wait, if an ethereal creature is incorporeal, shouldn't a blinker attacking while incorporeal have an 80% chance of normal dmg and a 20% chance of dealing 1/2 dmg with a magic weapon or no dmg with a nonmagical one?
That said, I like your clarification. I hadn't noticed the bit about the blinking ethereal creature being considered incorporeal.
Wait, if an ethereal creature is incorporeal, shouldn't a blinker attacking while incorporeal have an 80% chance of normal dmg and a 20% chance of dealing 1/2 dmg with a magic weapon or no dmg with a nonmagical one?
You're asking if an incorporeal creature under the effect of blink attacks another incorporeal creature?
He would be blinking between incorporeal and etherial.
And since etherial includes being incorporeal, he's incorporeal the entire time, and as such, would deal full damage to another incorporeal creature.
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Incorporeal does not = ethereal in Pathfinder. The language in the blink spell needs to be changed from "incorporeal" to "insubstantial" like ethereal jaunt. It's a hold over from 3.5.
So a blinking creature shouldn't be able to affect an incorporeal creature regardless of the plane they are on without a ghost touch weapon or force effects.
--School of Vrock
You're asking if an incorporeal creature under the effect of blink attacks another incorporeal creature?
He would be blinking between incorporeal and etherial.
And since etherial includes being incorporeal, he's incorporeal the entire time, and as such, would deal full damage to another incorporeal creature.
Not exactly. The blinking creature is passing between the material and ethereal states, spending about half their time on either plane and can attempt to time their attack while in either state.
Therefore since, as you clarified, in this instance ethereal counts as incorporeal (which would negate any of those benefits for the defender), the blinking attacker should have an 80% chance of full effect, and a 20% chance of reduced effect.
@ Vrock, it may be a holdover, but PF is an update to an old system not a new one (& you can even read that in their intro in the CRB), so seeing as it is still in the current wording, it still flies.
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The designers have stated that the holdover is not what they intended and PF is enough of an update to change several mechanics enough to be a different game such as combat maneuvers. Ghosts don't reside on the Ethereal Plane as a default assumption anymore. The cosmology of PF is absolutely different from 3.5 as the "great wheel" is WotC IP. That in and of itself is enough to drop the old assumptions.
--Vrock Solid
The blinking creature is passing between the material and ethereal states, spending about half their time on either plane and can attempt to time their attack while in either state.
I think the spell is under the assumption that you're on the material plane by default, and the effect is to make you blink to etherial. So if you were already on the etherial plane, it would make you blink from etherial to etherial, not specifically back to material. (And if you were on the shadow plane when you cast it, you would be on shadow/etherial, not material/etherial)
But even if the spell does put you on the material/etherial planes regardless of what plane you started on, I don't see why the percentages would be reversed. If 20% of the time when you attack you become etherial, then 20% of the time you would hit an etherial creature.
To simplify, I am just using the material and ethereal planes into his thread, though your arguments about using the spell on other planes is valid.
The assumption made by the spell, as I read it, is that the blinking creature is attempting to attack a material creature while themselves material and becomes ethereal just as his attack would hit 20% of the time, causing it to miss.
However, since they also spend half their time in the ethereal plane they could just as easily attempt to attack another ethereal creature while on that plane, thus reversing the percentages as they would become material just as they make the attack 20% of the time causing it to miss.
EDIT: The blink spell even states "You interact with ethereal creatures roughly the same way you interact with material creatures." Therefore, since you only have a 20% chance of missing a material creature, you should also only have a 20% chance of missing an ethereal one.