Aethereal pathways

At the present 9 Aethereal Pathways have been released along with Barrage and Perceive Pathway.

Syntax

See the PATHWAY command.

Elemental charge

Your ability to manipulate pathways is based on your elemental charge. Similar in concept to a mana pool, this pool is used only for manipulating pathways. Your charge drains constantly as long as a pathway is active; thus, you don't want to keep a pathway focused unless you are actually casting spells with it, and should stop the pathway when you take a break from casting.

Before you can manipulate pathways, you must ALIGN to an element and build charge. Charge can be built with SUMMON ADMITTANCE or by casting spells of your aligned element. Manipulating pathways teaches the Summoning skill. You can see if you are currently focusing on a path by typing PATH CHECK. You can check the status of your pool with PATH SENSE.

Elemental charge levels:

You sense nothing out of the ordinary. Only magic could detect the useless trace of <element> still in your system.

A small charge lingers within your body, just above the threshold of perception.

A small charge lingers within your body.

A charge dances through your body.

A charge dances just below the threshold of discomfort.

A charge circulates through your body, causing a low hum to vibrate through your bones.

Elemental essence floats freely within your body, leaving little untouched.

Elemental essence has infused every inch of your body. While you could contain more, you'd do so at the risk of your health.

Extraplanar power crackles within your body, leaving you feeling mildly feverish.

Extraplanar power crackles within your body, leaving you feeling acutely ill.

Your body sings and crackles with a barely contained charge, destroying what little cenesthesia you had left.

You have reached the limits of your body's capacity to store a charge. The laws of the Elemental Plane of [Element] scream demands upon your physiology, threatening your life.

Casting spells:

Aligned element: The complementary nature of the spell empowers you.

Opposing element: The conflicting nature of the spell diminishes you.

Pathway of Damage: Circle 4

Gauthus regards you appraisingly and says, "I see you are worthy to begin learning of the Pathways. The first pathway I shall show you is the Pathway of Damage. By manipulating this pathway into your targeting matrices, it will allow you to increase the damage capacity of your targeted spells."

Now on to the first ability. The first of these abilities which we're looking at is called 'Pathway Focus Damage'. This one is fairly straightforward. It provides a damage boost to TM spells if they hit the target. The reasoning behind Pathway Focus Damage (PF Damage) being the first ability of AP is that we'd like to help the younger folk in learning TM. A boost to TM damage should help add some experience to the TM pool and hopefully make it a bit easier to learn the skill. The best is wreaking more havoc upon your enemies by adding some extra oompf to you spells."
-- GM Chakram (Taken from the folder on Warrior Mage Ability - Aethereal Pathway)

Pathway Perceive: Circle 6

See Pathway Perceive entry.

Pathway of Quickness: Circle 8

Gauthus gazes at you, studying intently. You find yourself squirming a little at his scrutiny. The GuildMaster lets out a chuckle and says, "I see you are a fast learner. Indeed, you are now ready to learn of your next pathway, the Pathway of Quickness. This pathway is an interesting one. By infusing this pathway into your spell patterns, it allows you to more efficiently manipulate those patterns. The overall effect of this is that it will take you less time to fully target your spell."

"Today we highlight the second of the Aethereal Pathway abilities! Pathway Focus Quick! This handy little ability lets the mage speed up the targetting process, letting a mage reach the state of fully targetted in less time than it would normally take. It should arrive somewhere around 8th circle where it will greatly aid mages of that age (where targeting time is longest). At any age, a mage can utilize reduced targeting time so is also something useful throughout a mage's career." -- GM Chakram

Pathway of Conserve: Circle 10

Focus Conserve, reduces the minimum prep of TM spells by a small amount (though never below 1). Note that the spell will be considered at minimum power until its mana level reaches its normal minimum prep, and from that point on increase in power appropriately. This pathway requires the completion of a short quest."
-- GM Wythor

Pathway of Ease: Circle 12

Gauthus scrutinizes you and lets out a grunt before saying, "Well, I don't think there's a single GuildMaster who likes teaching what I am to show you. However, because it does have a certain degree of utility, I will do as Lathaelor bids and tell you about it." Gauthus sighs and continues, "The Pathway of Ease makes it easier for you to cast your targeted spells. By infusing this pathway directly into your spell pattern, it allows mana to flow through it with less resistance." Gauthus glares and exclaims, "But I better not catch you using this ability to slack off on your studies! Cause Lathaelor be damned, I'll not be happy should that happen."

The third in our series of Aethereal Pathway abilities is Pathway Focus Ease! PF Ease is gained at 12th circle and decreases the difficulty of casting TM spells so that the mage is able to put more mana than they are usually able to harness into the spell matrix. This nifty ability is the third as it will let the younger mages put a bit more power behind their spells than they normally would, and at this point in their career a mage should be able to sense more mana than when they begin, increasing the usefulness of this ability. Thus younger mages get more use out of it than they would at lower circles and are able to make use of it while they are still young. It will also help the older mages to get those more difficult spells off more easily. -- GM Chakram

Pathway of Power: Circle 16

Gauthus' expression brightens considerably. He sounds very excited as he tells you, "I see you have progressed in your sojourn to learn of the Aethereal Pathways. What I am about to explain to you has to be one of my favorite utilizations of the pathways."
Gauthus leans forward as he explains, "The Pathway of Power is what we use to help us penetrate an opponents innate resistance to our magic."
The GuildMaster grins and says, "Yes, you heard correctly. A useful tool, no?"
Gauthus leans in closely and whispers to you, "Its extraordinary fun using this to toy with Agonar, but you didn't hear that from me."

"Next in our series of Aethereal Pathway abilities is Pathway Focus Power! PF Power allows one to overcome the Magical Resistance of an opponent with a bit more ease than one normally would. It helps give a bit of an offensive boost to the Targetted spell as well. This comes at about 16th circle. It will help younger and older mages alike to better cast their targetted spells on those targets which give resistance problems."
-- GM Chakram

"It doesn't work with any non-targeted spell."

"Focus Power simulates the effects of using more mana than you actually did (this may increase spell damage). This bonus increases as you invest more mana in the spell, until you approach the mana cap. At that point the spell plus the bonus is considered as powerful as it's going to get, and the effective bonus decreases -- until it becomes exactly zero when you hit the cap."

"So in a nutshell, Focus Power does effectively nothing at the min prep and mana cap. There's a 'sweet spot' involved in getting the most out of this particular pathway." -- GM Wythor (11/15/07)

Pathway of Accuracy: Circle 20

"The fifth in the series of abilities comes at 20th circle, called Pathway Focus Accuracy. PF Accuracy, as the name implies, increases the accuracy of your spells as if you had more skill in Targetted Magic than you really have. This, in effect, increases the power of the spell and the likeliness that you'll actually hit something (nifty, huh?). This comes fifth as it basically incorporates some of the earlier PF abilities (though not as powerful as say Damage alone) and lets a mage grow into it as he or she gains skill."
-- GM Chakram

Pathway of Secrecy: Circle 28

"The sixth ability is called Pathway Focus Secrecy. PF Secrecy will increase a mage's ability to remain concealed while they target a spell (yay for stealth!). It will happen some time after PF Accuracy. This comes sixth as hopefully a mage by this time will be a bit more skilled in the arts of hiding (let's face it, it's not the easiest thing to train for us), thus allowing mages to be able to use this."
-- GM Chakram

Elemental Barrage: Circle 30

See Elemental Barrage entry.

Pathway of Precision: Circle 36

"Next up! Our seventh ability in the Aethereal Pathway series is called Pathway Focus Precise! PF Precise allows a mage to reduce the penalty that is normally associated with finely targetting a creature, such as targetting an arm or a leg specifically. This ability is seventh, coming some time after PF Secrecy, and hopefully at this point a mage will be able to make use of precision targetting and thus making this ability useful to some of the older mages."
-- GM Chakram

Pathway of Defense: Circle 44

"The eighth ability, is called Pathway Focus Defend. PF Defend, happening after PF Precise, allows a mage to manipulate aether, making it harder for targetted spells to hit them. This nifty ability comes eighth as by now the mage is pretty experienced. This ability allows these more experienced mages to defend themselves from incoming targetted magic attacks."
-- GM Chakram

Acquiring

See Aethereal Pathways (Walkthroughs) for the quest spoilers.

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