The blink effect rapidly cycles the character in and out of
the ethereal plane. Blinking has several effects:
Physical attacks suffer a 50% miss chance, and the Blind-Fight
feat doesn't help (since the blinker is ethereal and not merely
invisible). If the attack is capable of striking ethereal or
incorporeal creatures, the miss chance is only 20% (for one-half
concealment). If the attacker can see invisible creatures, the
miss chance is also only 20%. If the attacker can both see and
strike ethereal creatures, he suffers no penalty. Likewise, the
character's own attacks suffer a 20% miss chance, since the
character sometimes goes ethereal just as the character is about
to strike.
Individually targeted spells have a 50% chance to fail against
the character while blinking unless the character's attacker can
target invisible, ethereal creatures. Likewise, the character's
own spells have a 20% chance to activate just as the character
goes ethereal, in which case they typically do not affect the
Material Plane.
While blinking, the character takes only half damage from area
attacks (or full damage from those that extend onto the Ethereal
Plane). The character strikes as an invisible creature (+2
attack), denying the character's target any Dexterity bonus to
AC. The character suffers only half damage from falling, since
the character falls only while the character is material.
While blinking, the character can step through (but not see
through) solid objects. For each 5 feet of solid material the
character walks through, there's a 50% chance that the character
becomes material, with regrettable consequences (see below). The
character can move only at three-quarters speed: Movement on the
Ethereal Plane is at half speed, and the character spends about
half the character's time there and half the character's time
material.
Since the character spends about half the character's time on
the Ethereal Plane, the character can see and even attack
ethereal creatures. The character interacts with ethereal
creatures roughly the same way the character interacts with
material ones. For instance, the character's spells against
ethereal creatures are 20% likely to activate just as the
character goes material and be lost.
An ethereal creature who becomes material while in a material
object is shunted off to the nearest open space and takes 1d6
points of damage per 5 feet so traveled.
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