blink vs displacement?

[Jekko]

Which one is better? They seem to be overlapping

[HopeJesus4evs]

Displacement is just an illusion, so enemies with true sight ignore it.
Blinking is actually going to other plane and back, so no true sight or blind fight helps against it. On the other hand, you can only cast blink on yourself

[Procrastinating Gamer]

Well they're two different schools of magic (Blink is Transmutation while Displacement is Illusion) which may affect some school-specific abilities.

Beyond that; Displacement just provides an illusory effect around you so it does nothing against enemies with True Seeing.

Blink, on the other hand, is actively turning you ethereal - as in actually transmuting your state of matter so that miss chance isn't representing them attacking an illusion but you technically being a ghost when the blade passes through you. So True Seeing doesn't help at all against Blink. Turning ethereal like that also means you take half-damage from AOE effects (unless it's one that bleeds into the Ethereal Plane, though I can't remember any AOE effects that do that off the top of my head) but also imposes a 20% miss chance on your own attacks because you keep switching between ethereal and normal so rapidly.

[Jekko]

so generally speaking blink is better?

[quiter07]

Generally speaking blink is worse, especially as a spellcaster. Most of the time you wont run into enemies that can see through displacement... but when you do and you rely on it to keep you alive it can be a huge issue. Best defense in pathfinder are layered defenses. High AC, saving throws, and using things like displacement, mirror image, and blink to supplement the basics. Also summons can be very useful to keep your party from single target damage. One more thing to note, blink and displacement should (not sure how its coded) stack and provide two random rolls @50% odds to mitigate any incoming hits.

[Morgian]

Yes, blink is better than displacement, because true seeing does not invalidate it. And a large number of the demons has true seeing, and so does every mini boss. The disadvantage is that it can be cast only on yourself - but you can circumvent that by scribing scrolls, if the recipient has UMD. Can be useful for the major fights, if you can swing it. I did not find a wand with the spell, which is a pity.

[Procrastinating Gamer]

Also I think Blink's 20% miss chance applies to any spell attack rolls you make, not just weapon attacks.

[Decius Brutus]

Originally posted by quiter07:

Generally speaking blink is worse, especially as a spellcaster. Most of the time you wont run into enemies that can see through displacement... but when you do and you rely on it to keep you alive it can be a huge issue. Best defense in pathfinder are layered defenses. High AC, saving throws, and using things like displacement, mirror image, and blink to supplement the basics. Also summons can be very useful to keep your party from single target damage. One more thing to note, blink and displacement should (not sure how its coded) stack and provide two random rolls @50% odds to mitigate any incoming hits.

The closest thing to an official ruling on the issue is that there is everything that applies a miss chance only applies the highest miss chance. But displacement should prevent precision damage, and blink should not.

https://paizo.com/threads/rzs2kqkj?Blink-and-displacement#4