D&D General Is there anyway to injure an ethereal creature outside the ethereal?

[Stalker0]

If I can see an ethereal creature with lets say See Invisibility, is there any effect, magic item, or spell that can actually injure an ethereal creature? Or do I simply have to be on the ethereal plane?

 

[Yaarel]

From the Material Plane, force damage generally works well assuming one can perceive the Ethereal creature.


I need to doublecheck core, but in my settings:

Psychic damage too.

And viceversa from the Ethereal.

 

[aco175]

Right, you have a poor ethereal creature just walking down the ethereal street, minding its own business and you want to up and smash him just because you happen to see him.

You need to first say that its coming right for you.

 

[Pedantic]

I haven't looked at 5e assumptions, but aren't force effects supposed to exist on both planes and affect them both?

 

[Stalker0]

The debate seems to primarily wage on this quote from the DMG (not sure if this is 2014 or 2024 or both).

Normally, creatures in the Border Ethereal can't attack creatures on the overlapped plane, and vice versa. A traveler on the Ethereal Plane is invisible and utterly silent to someone on the overlapped plane, and solid objects on the overlapped plane don't hamper the movement of a creature in the Border Ethereal. The exceptions are certain magical effects (including anything made of magical force) and living beings.


School 1: The last sentence notes an exception to the sentence right before it which focuses on movement. Aka certain force effects can hinder movement into the ethereal such as wall of force. The proponents of this one utilize a Jeremy Crawford tweet, and the fact that wall of force and similar force spells actually note that they extend into the ethereal plane.

School 2: The last sentence notes an exception to the whole of the paragraph, which includes attack. Aka certain force effects can hinder movement AND certain force effects can attack. Proponents of this school note this is more proper sentence structure than in school 1.


Based on my reading, I think school 1 is the more proper one. It also prevents abuses like an ethereal warlock just standing there blasting people all day completely safe in the ethereal.

 

[Lidgar]

The etherealness spell (2024) says this:

While on the Ethereal Plane, you can affect and be affected only by creatures, objects, and effects on that plane. Creatures that aren’t on the Ethereal Plane can’t perceive or interact with you unless a feature gives them the ability to do so.

EDIT: The 2024 DMG has the same exception pointed out by Stalker above.

 

[Yaarel]

Relating to the setting worldview, the reason Force damage is effective against Ethereal creatures is because "ether" is force, and Ethereal creatures are "force constructs" made out of ethereal forces, also known as "magical energy". Ethereal creatures are the "form" of matter, not actually matter per se.

 

[lall]

If I can see an ethereal creature with lets say See Invisibility, is there any effect, magic item, or spell that can actually injure an ethereal creature? Or do I simply have to be on the ethereal plane?

You can hurt their feelings with a nasty Sending.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]