A Brief Guide To Ethermagic

Ethermagic is one of the subsystems for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game introduced in Strange Magic by Interjection Games.

The primary mechanic of this system is its Ether Points. This is a pool of energy equal to [(Class Level x2) + Cha Mod] for the Ethermancer class, or [Class Level + Cha Mod] for the Ethermagus and Etherslinger classes. This pool refills each round at a predetermined rate, typically 1/2 level (Ethermancer) or 1/3 level (Ethermagus/Etherslinger), with the occasional small boost.

The practical effect of this is that an ethermagic character is limited in what they can do over the course of several rounds, but is otherwise able to continue doing things throughout a day. If an ethermagic user goes all-in, they typically have 2-4 rounds of power before they must stop and recharge, preferably by not using their ethermagic at all.

Ethermagic itself is divided into "Etherhearts", which are extremely similar to spherecasting in that they are largely a base rule modified by additional manifestations ("talents"). GM's who are familiar with Spheres of Power will likely find the Etherhearts easy to learn. There are six main Etherhearts, although no class has access to all of them.

Manifestations come in up to 6 levels, although they are not entirely comparable to traditional 6th-level casting. An ethermagic user cannot know more of a higher-level manifestation than the level below it. In practice, this means an ether caster will have 1-3 options per manifestation level to choose from.

Lesser Blast is the primary basic Etherheart. This is a magical ranged touch attack that deals 1d3 damage per character level, plus the user's Charisma modifier. On average, this is 2 damage per dice. A 1st-level character with 18 Charisma would do 5-7 damage per shot (average 6), while a 20th-level character with 36 Charisma would deal 33-73 damage (average 53). This is relatively low damage for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

However, to improve the low damage, an ethermagic user can apply up to 3 compatible manifestations they know. These can include changing the shape of the attack, changing the damage type, or providing additional effects (mostly debuffs) to the blast. Many of these changes increase the cost of the blast, so the more an ethermagic user adds, the faster they're going to run out and be stuck with only their basic blast until they recharge more. Ethercasters find it easy to change the type of damage they deal, so enemy resistances are unlikely to slow them down much.

Alteration is the other basic Etherheart. Unlike in Spheres of Power, where Alteration refers to shapeshifting, this etherheart focuses on personal effects. Alteration effects are broadly minor, such as small boosts to AC or saving throws.

Bestow manifestations are applied to other creatures, or to the Ethermancer themselves, and are gained at a higher level. These can be positive effects for allies or negative effects imposed on enemies. Bestow manifestations last 1 round/level and reduce the user's ether pool while active; in short, they cannot blast as well.

The Greater Blast Etherheart is limited to the Ethermancer class. This deals [1d10 + Cha Mod] damage, plus an additional 1d10 every odd level thereafter. Since it is acquired at Level 7, it does a minimum of 4d10 + Cha Mod damage (estimated +8 at this level), or roughly 30 damage. At 20th level, under the same guidelines as Lesser Blast, it would do 22-113 damage (average 68). A damage-focused Ethermancer can improve this by a few dice worth of damage, but overall, even the Greater Blast is essentially low-but-largely-consistent damage. The Greater Blast is more expensive than the Lesser Blast, and will cause an Ethermancer to run out of energy noticeably faster.

For comparison, the Greater Blast does an average of 5.5 additional damage per two levels. An empowered Destructive Blast in Spheres of Power does about 7 damage per two levels, assuming d6's for damage.

The Genesis Etherheart is similar to the Creation sphere in that it allows for creating basically-physical objects. Like the Bestow Etherheart, doing this reduces a character's maximum ether points until it's gone, which in practice means lowering how many rounds they can create strong blasts.

The Voidmeld Etherheart is exclusive to the Ethermagus class. It is functionally similar to the Bestow Etherheart, except that it applies only to the Ethermagus' summoned weapon.

The math on ethermagic is unusually tight for Pathfinder, and Etherhearts themselves actually have increased costs over time to keep them in the right range. It is, therefore, difficult for characters to go outside of its existing power range without layering on exterior bonuses (which is true for anything a character could do).