Questions about ranged touch attacks, stoneskin and soft cover

[Hypersmurf]

3.0 Tome and Blood seems to do exactly that, by allowing wizards to take feats such as Weapon Focus (Ray).

Except doesn't Tome and Blood make it a special case?

After all, you can't take Weapon Specialization (Ray); Tome and Blood introduced the Spell Specialization feat for that...

-Hyp.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

On the other hand, when casting spells that are resolved with ranged touch attacks, the save DCs are less important than how well you can target them. A spellcaster in this situation probably has a high Dexterity score and would benefit most from Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot. Because ranged touch spells work much as ranged weapons do, both these feats enhance them too ... The best part is, these feats also work with your bow or crossbow.

Any spell that requires an attack roll and deals damage functions as a weapon in certain respects. A spell's "damage" may be normal damage, subdual damage, ability damage, or energy drain. Such spells can inflict critical hits, can be used in sneak attacks, and allow rangers to use their favored enemy bonuses. You can even use a number of combat-enhancing feats from the Player's Handbook to improve the efficacy of Weaponlike spells...

Hrm. Unfortunately, T&B doesn't specify when a weaponlike spell does not behave as a weapon...

Indeed, from the T&B text, I'd be hard-pressed not to rule that a Fighter/Wizard with at least 4 levels in fighter can, indeed, take Weapon Specialization (Ray).

[edit] Actually, here's a list of the feats that T&B allows to affect weaponlike spells: Improved Critical, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, Improved Unarmed Strike, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Stunning Fist, Two-Weapon Fighting, Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus.

Pretty much everything except Weapon Specialization, for which they introduced Spell Specialization.

It seems that the line between an actual weapon and a weaponlike spell is very, very thin indeed.