Magic Classes/Jobs for the Aetherically challenged

So this is a bit of a bug of mine in fantasy or sci-fi settings, where some sort of innate ability or quality is required to engage with the supernatural at all. We see a couple of examples of this in the story, with the most obvious being Cocobusi from the Thaumaturge questline. We're told that his aetheric reserves are so low that attempting to practice thaumaturgy might actually kill him. I was wondering if there is another more aether-efficient job or class he might be able to practice, such as Arcanima or Conjury? Red Mage is probably out since part of it is based on black-magic and using the user's own aether, but it is reported to be a remarkably aether-efficient discipline so maybe that's not off the table either. What do you think?

All magic requires a latent predisposition to being aetherically dense - otherwise the spell would consume the caster's life force, and ultimately, their soul, indeed killing them. Generally those who find they cannot cast magic will usually compensate by adopting some other means of an equivelant Discipline (Thancred for instance, after having his body's aetheric density stripped by Y'shtola's desperate gamble using Flow at the end of ARR and from then on, being unable to cast magic or even teleport, took up Doman ninjitsu techniques, and following his summoning to the First, adopted the gunblade of the hrothgar, fuelling his gunblade's cartridges with aether given to him by others - initially Ryne, and later on Urianger.)

And it should go without saying there is an entire nation of non-magic users (Garlemald) who invented cereleum-powered technology (magitek) to compensate for their lack of aetheric density and sensitivity (due to a quirk of their physiology), showing that those who cannot use magic usually find ways to make up for that defficency in other ways (cereleum being an especially useful resource for that given it's extremely rich in aether). Cocobusi was just an outlier because it was simply his own insecurities at play, being born into a family of mages who ran a mage Guild in a country famed for aetherial talents, he felt like he was an outcast for not sharing the gift, and so he became completely obsessed with trying to be like his siblings instead of accepting he was different and cherishing and mastering his own unique talents (this is the underlying theme of the THM class quests).

So he wasn't really representative of everyone who finds they are incapable or unable to use magic in an aether-rich land such as Eorzea.

Most jobs use aether in some form or another. A good job for someone who's not as aetherical inclined would probably be Machinist. As the box they carry on their hips draws in the aether needed to use their tools. Conjury would be a good one as unlike thaumaturgy it gets most of its aether again from the surrounding environment. As it's unwise to go about casting healing magics while only relying apon one's own aether. I think Red Mage would be fine as one of the NPCs involved in that quest line is aetherical challenged as Arya can still cast spells. Even if it doesn't come as freely as it does for the WoL or X'Ruhn.

But as Enkidoh alluded to, in FFXIV's setting basically everyone can manipulate aether as a default, it's not 'certain people are Super Special' and more 'it's a disability that some people can't do that as well'; Cocobusi essentially has really poor circulation. I'd be able to come up with an IRL equivalent if I knew medicine, but alas! And of course, Garleans are a special case that they as a people can't; instead, their aether manipulation is tuned inwards, so they're highly physically capable but not capable of doing the aether manipulation that the jobs we know do. My favorite description is 'they're Captain America in a world where every other nation is the X-Men'.

As for the jobs that would do okay with those conditions, though: Your level says that I'm probably good to say that Gunbreaker is literally used for exactly this purpose in the MSQ. You need someone else to charge those aether cartridges, but they're fine otherwise. For other jobs... Ninja/Rogue is used by Thancred with little issue, and Lucia is apparently so good with a sword-and-board that she can get promoted in Ishgard despite the lack of aether usage. The Garlean gunblades that people like Gaius use are a completely different style than Gunbreaker, but being Garlean it was a style explicitly designed for those who couldn't use aether. Reaper as a job is also rooted in Garleans' inability to use aether, but got a bit more... extreme about compensating. And yes, if we're looking at 'stunted but not nonexistent' aether manipulation like Cocobusi, Red Mage would work very well.

Something I'm realizing kinda got skipped over, and the OP might need a direct explanation of:

Every job uses aether manipulation as part of their skillset, it's sort of a basic technique in FFXIV's world. The magic jobs use it extremely overtly and immediately, of course, but every job is using it to some extent, be it to increase the strength of their strikes, to add a bit of an elemental kick, to maneuver or aim better, stuff like that. Even the crafters all manipulate aether a little to smooth along their crafting, and I'm pretty sure the gatherers crack it out sometimes too (I went through the gatherer questlines a while ago, so my memory of them is hazy).

Just saying this to really outline that Cocobusi's problem is actually considerably worse than 'he doesn't have the special-ness to do magic'. He's also at a huge disadvantage if he went down the street to learn pugilism or swordplay, because after a point those also crack into aether manipulation he can't make full use of. He can probably get further with those, and as mentioned at least one person's excelled without aether manipulation in one of those, but he's still enormously on the back foot, because when it comes down to 'what he can't do', nearly every job is a magic job. Hell, as an alchemist he's probably already doing the most his body can swing on that front, since crafters mostly use crystals for their aether manipulation.

I would say Fishing does use aether. Or at least while spear fishing since one skill allows you to electrify the water. Unless sensing the special nodes could be seen as using aether. Something to ask Oda san at a fan fest. Maybe we can conjure up another fish or a plant this time.

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Originally Posted by Cleretic

Something I'm realizing kinda got skipped over, and the OP might need a direct explanation of:

Every job uses aether manipulation as part of their skillset, it's sort of a basic technique in FFXIV's world. The magic jobs use it extremely overtly and immediately, of course, but every job is using it to some extent, be it to increase the strength of their strikes, to add a bit of an elemental kick, to maneuver or aim better, stuff like that. Even the crafters all manipulate aether a little to smooth along their crafting, and I'm pretty sure the gatherers crack it out sometimes too (I went through the gatherer questlines a while ago, so my memory of them is hazy).

Just saying this to really outline that Cocobusi's problem is actually considerably worse than 'he doesn't have the special-ness to do magic'. He's also at a huge disadvantage if he went down the street to learn pugilism or swordplay, because after a point those also crack into aether manipulation he can't make full use of. He can probably get further with those, and as mentioned at least one person's excelled without aether manipulation in one of those, but he's still enormously on the back foot, because when it comes down to 'what he can't do', nearly every job is a magic job. Hell, as an alchemist he's probably already doing the most his body can swing on that front, since crafters mostly use crystals for their aether manipulation.

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Do you still think Red Mage is a viable path, or maybe Arcanist. He probably couldn't make it his full time job, but maybe it would be a nice hobby.

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Originally Posted by Contiguouskittycat

Do you still think Red Mage is a viable path, or maybe Arcanist. He probably couldn't make it his full time job, but maybe it would be a nice hobby.

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Not at all. Cocobusi literally *cannot* manipulate Aether, because he is one of the *minority* of people who cannot. His body literally *cannot* do magic without ultimately killing him.

When we say Jobs, we mean "the classes provided by square enix, who named them "jobs"". An Arcanist uses Aether to a significant degree, and a Red Mage even moreso, as it uses White and Black magic (Aether)

It's been an EXTREMELY long time since I've played the Thaumaturge questline, but I believe it's ambiguous whether Cocobusi has no aether manipulation capabilities or just extremely reduced, just that it's enough to knock thaumaturgy off the table anyway. If it's the former, every single magic job is completely unviable just on a base level; it's just not possible, end of story. If it's the latter... I actually think they're still all off the table, because the main reason Red Mage is aetherically economical is because it uses internal aether rather than external... but internal aether is the central problem for Cocobusi anyway. If it's so bad he can't even use an externally-based magic style like thaumaturgy, he can't use ANY of them. He can't just be a 'part-time' Red Mage or something, that'd be like suggesting that Arenvald become a 'part-time' walker.

If we instead turn to the Disciple of War jobs, we've got the ones that have already been mentioned: Machinist, Gunbreaker, Ninja, and Reaper are all either invented for people who can't manipulate aether, or are used to a pretty decent level by someone who can't.

I think it's the latter in that it's extremely reduced. Remember Yayake will only allow those who has a big enough aether pool to get past her when people are looking to sign up to the guild. All due to her knowing how much aether one would need to safely cast spells used by thaumagturges. She tells us that she doesn't care about what people say about her after she's turned them away at the front door. Yayake would rather you curse her name then allow you to join only for you to die cause you didn't have enough in the tank so to speak.

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Originally Posted by SannaR

A good job for someone who's not as aetherical inclined would probably be Machinist. As the box they carry on their hips draws in the aether needed to use their tools. Conjury would be a good one as unlike thaumaturgy it gets most of its aether again from the surrounding environment.

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Originally Posted by Cleretic

If we instead turn to the Disciple of War jobs, we've got the ones that have already been mentioned: Machinist, Gunbreaker, Ninja, and Reaper are all either invented for people who can't manipulate aether, or are used to a pretty decent level by someone who can't.

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Machinists' lunchboxes convert the user's aether, not the ambient aether, so they would be unsuited for anyone who cannot manipulate aether. You could still use a gun, but you wouldn't be able to use any of the special abilities and wouldn't be an actual Machinist. Ninja uses mudras that use aether. Without them, you're just a rogue. The only job stone I could see anyone aetherically challenged being able to use is Reaper's unless you're a Gunbreaker with your own Ryne who can charge cartridges for you.

That said, I see no reason why the DoW classes would be beyond such a person. All of DoM is completely off the table though. If it were possible for Thancred or the Garleans to pull in aether from their surroundings, you'd think it would've been a thing already.

Ameliance herself says this in the recent deliveries questline:

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Originally Posted by Ameliance Leveilleur

Magic is the power to convert one's aether into tangible phenomena.

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Now this is just my conjecture, but it leaves me to believe that for the historical magical classes like BLM and WHM who were said to suck up ambient aether from their surroundings, a bit of seed aether from yourself and an understanding of aetherial manipulation is still required to perform spells. Otherwise environmentally unfriendly Garlean mages would have been going around sucking the life out of things to perform spellcraft, which would've been pretty cool though.

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Originally Posted by Cleretic

It's been an EXTREMELY long time since I've played the Thaumaturge questline, but I believe it's ambiguous whether Cocobusi has no aether manipulation capabilities or just extremely reduced, just that it's enough to knock thaumaturgy off the table anyway. If it's the former, every single magic job is completely unviable just on a base level; it's just not possible, end of story. If it's the latter... I actually think they're still all off the table, because the main reason Red Mage is aetherically economical is because it uses internal aether rather than external... but internal aether is the central problem for Cocobusi anyway. If it's so bad he can't even use an externally-based magic style like thaumaturgy, he can't use ANY of them. He can't just be a 'part-time' Red Mage or something, that'd be like suggesting that Arenvald become a 'part-time' walker.

If we instead turn to the Disciple of War jobs, we've got the ones that have already been mentioned: Machinist, Gunbreaker, Ninja, and Reaper are all either invented for people who can't manipulate aether, or are used to a pretty decent level by someone who can't.

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Minor point is that Thaumaturgy doesn't use external aether. Black magic does, and so does Conjury as well as White Magic.