Touching allies.

[Joker]

During combat, if you want to cast a spell with a range of touch on an ally, do you have to roll to hit?

How about if a hierophant with the divine reach ability tries to cast a heal at range on an ally, does he have to make a ranged touch attack to hit?

Thank in advance.

 

[Scharlata]

During combat, if you want to cast a spell with a range of touch on an ally, do you have to roll to hit?

How about if a hierophant with the divine reach ability tries to cast a heal at range on an ally, does he have to make a ranged touch attack to hit?

Thank in advance.

Hi!

Touch Spells in Combat

You can automatically touch one friend or use the spell on yourself, but to touch an opponent, you must succeed on an attack roll.

and

Touch attacks come in two types: melee touch attacks [...] and ranged touch attacks [...]

Both questions should be answered with: You can do it without an attack roll.

Kind regards

 

[werk]

It is a touch spell when used on willing targets and a touch attack when used on unwilling targets. Ranged or melee, makes no difference.

edit: So no attack is needed on willing targets.

 

[Bauglir]

also

Holding the Charge

If you don’t discharge the spell in the round when you cast the spell, you can hold the discharge of the spell (hold the charge) indefinitely. You can continue to make touch attacks round after round. You can touch one friend as a standard action or up to six friends as a full-round action.

I can't for the life of me think of any spell that would make use of that full-round action though.

 

[TheGogmagog]

My current DM also points out that you DO need to be able to target your friend. So if you can't see invisible party members, or don't have line of sight. They may miss out on spells where you target friends, like haste. A burst spell that affects friends and foe alike (Prayer), would still affect invisible targets.

He also imposes a miss chance on touch spells on invisible party members.

I haven't be able to come up with any text quote to dispute either of these.

 

[TheGogmagog]

I can't for the life of me think of any spell that would make use of that full-round action though.

Any touch spell that affects multiple targets, like windwalk or waterbreathing.

The standard action thread even points out that raise dead lists it as being able to affect more than 6 undead, but you wouldn't be able to touch more than 6 in a round. That is assuming that touching undead uses the same mechanic as touching friends. Retrieving an object is a standard action, how many objects can you just touch in a round?

 

[AuraSeer]

I can't for the life of me think of any spell that would make use of that full-round action though.

Water breathing is a touch spell that affects multiple allies. AFAIK it's the only one in the core books.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

My current DM also points out that you DO need to be able to target your friend. So if you can't see invisible party members, or don't have line of sight. They may miss out on spells where you target friends, like haste. A burst spell that affects friends and foe alike (Prayer), would still affect invisible targets.

He also imposes a miss chance on touch spells on invisible party members.

I haven't be able to come up with any text quote to dispute either of these.

I think your DM rocks. It would always annoy me a little how the uber-rouge in my last group would be invisible-hiding-blinking all the time (including out of combat to show she was better than the other characters) but somehow when she did need a heal, the cleric somehow a) knew and b) could just bop over and cast on her. pheh.

 

[Infiniti2000]

During combat, if you want to cast a spell with a range of touch on an ally, do you have to roll to hit?

No, but you'd have to roll miss chance if the ally were invisible and you did not have the ability to see invisible.

How about if a hierophant with the divine reach ability tries to cast a heal at range on an ally, does he have to make a ranged touch attack to hit?

The key to this question is what does the spell become? The heirophant Divine Reach description does not say. Note that there is no such thing as a Range: Touch spell usable at a non-touch range. The Range: Touch does NOT mean melee or ranged touch, it strictly refers to melee touch. All ranged touch spells are rays. I think the Reach Spell metamagic feat, for instance, specifies that the spell becomes an Effect: Ray and thus Range: 30ft.

What I think Divine Reach does is transform the Range: Touch spell into a Range: 30ft spell with Effect: Ray. In that case, it is no longer a "Touch" spell and is not automatic on allies (contrary, apparently, to everyone else in this thread). For it to be automatic on allies, you'd have to rule that Divine Reach creates a new class of Range for those spells. Specifically, Range: Ranged Touch at 30ft.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

The key to this question is what does the spell become? The heirophant Divine Reach description does not say. Note that there is no such thing as a Range: Touch spell usable at a non-touch range.

Actually, there are.

Divine Reach is one:

Divine Reach (Su): A hierophant with this ability can use touch spells on targets up to 30 feet away. If the spell requires a melee touch attack, the hierophant must make a ranged touch attack instead. Divine reach can be selected a second time as a special ability, in which case the range increases to 60 feet.

Arcane Reach is another:

Arcane Reach (Su): The archmage can use spells with a range of touch on a target up to 30 feet away. The archmage must make a ranged touch attack. Arcane reach can be selected a second time as a special ability, in which case the range increases to 60 feet. This ability costs one 7th-level spell slot.

Another, arguably, is any spell cast via Spectral Hand:

A ghostly, glowing hand shaped from your life force materializes and moves as you desire, allowing you to deliver low-level, touch range spells at a distance.

This is important.

A touch range spell has targets - generally, "creature(s) touched" - which has implications within the rules. Specifically, see the spell Spell Turning.

What I think Divine Reach does is transform the Range: Touch spell into a Range: 30ft spell with Effect: Ray.

Ruling so means that an Inflict Light Wounds spell applied via Divine Reach would not be subject to Spell Turning, whereas one delivered via normal means would.

Additionally, it means that your spell - possibly prepared with metamagic - may or may not be a valid spell for that metmagic feat depending on how you deliver it (c.f. split ray, chain spell, etc.).

Finally, the rules don't say that Divine Reach makes touch spells into a ray spell. Ergo, it doesn't make them into ray spells. It makes them into touch spells wherein you can touch something from farther away.