Can you deflect attacks from any monster or do they have to be using a weapon?
Natural Weapons are still weapons.
So you can't use it on melee touch attacks?
A melee touch attack is a weapon, as is a ranged touch, a ray, an unarmed strike, a bite, a tail slap, and so on. If you deflect the attack, you generally prevent any effect that would have happened if the attack had landed, including poisons, touch spell discharging, energy drain, disjunction from a rod of cancellation, and so on.
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However, unlike a Duelist's Parry, it does not trigger any side effects as the attack from a Crane Wing (also Deflect Arrows/Missile Shield) is "negated", not counted a miss result. So if an Alchemist chucks a bomb at a Duelist and the Duelist parries it, the splash damage still triggers. If an Alchemist chucks a bomb at a person who Deflects Arrows, the attack is negated, so no splash damage.
Moreover, a Duelist's Parry needs an Immediate Action, while using a Full Attack action beforehand, to activate the parry, and it still does not guarantee a successful parry. Crane Wing and its counterparts guarantees a negate on hit.
A melee touch attack is a weapon, as is a ranged touch, a ray, an unarmed strike, a bite, a tail slap, and so on. If you deflect the attack, you generally prevent any effect that would have happened if the attack had landed, including poisons, touch spell discharging, energy drain, disjunction from a rod of cancellation, and so on.Crane Wing (Combat)
You move with the speed and finesse of an avian hunter, your sweeping blocks and graceful motions allowing you to deflect melee attacks with ease.
Prerequisites: Crane Style, Dodge, Improved Unarmed Strike, base attack bonus +5 or monk level 5th.
Benefit: Once per round while using Crane Style, when you have at least one hand free and are either fighting defensively or using the total defense action, you can deflect one melee weapon attack that would normally hit you. You expend no action to deflect the attack, but you must be aware of it and not flat-footed. An attack so deflected deals no damage to you.
so no deflecting ranged touch attacks, or rays.
** spoiler omitted **...
Sorry, I was concentrating on the definition of "weapon", since that seemed to be vexing the OP. You are correct that only the melee entries above would qualify for Crane Wing.
I'm sure that spell delivered via touch attacks are not weapon. The book sais that you are considered armed with is different from using a weapon. After all, I doubt anyone here let's Good Hope or bard song apply to shocking grasp damage.
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I'm sure that spell delivered via touch attacks are not weapon. The book sais that you are considered armed with is different from using a weapon. After all, I doubt anyone here let's Good Hope or bard song apply to shocking grasp damage.FAQ
Deflecting Attacks: Does an attack that is deflected count as a miss?
It depends on the ability that is deflecting the attack.
For example, the Deflect Arrows feat says, "Once per round when you would normally be hit with an attack from a ranged weapon, you may deflect it so that you take no damage from it." It doesn't say the attack is a miss or is treated as a miss--instead, you take no damage from the attack. Because it is not a miss, effects that would trigger on a miss (such as Efreeti Style or Snake Fang from Ultimate Combat) are not triggered.
Likewise, the Crane Wing feat (Ultimate Combat) uses similar language and does not say the deflected attack is a miss or treated as a miss.
Note that the Snatch Arrows feat counts as a deflected attack--you do not take damage if you choose to catch the weapons instead of just deflecting it, and catching the weapon does not mean the attack was a miss.
Update 5/29/13: If the attack is deflected, not only does the target take no damage, but any other effects (ability drain, negative levels, harmful conditions, and so on) associated with that attack do not occur. If the deflected attack is a touch spell or other effect that requires "holding the charge," the charge is not expended. For example, if a ghoul's claw attack is deflected, the target is not subject to the ghoul's paralysis ability from the attack. If a shocking grasp touch attack is deflected, the attacker is still "holding the charge." The Crane Wing feat will be updated in a future printing of Ultimate Combat to clarify these issues.—Pathfinder Design Team, 05/28/13
Emphasis mine.
I'm sure that spell delivered via touch attacks are not weapon. The book sais that you are considered armed with is different from using a weapon. After all, I doubt anyone here let's Good Hope or bard song apply to shocking grasp damage.
Errr...those things DO work with touch attack spells.
Melee touch attacks count as melee weapons, and ranged touch attacks count as ranged weapons.
It's a bit fuzzy for the others (as far as directly saying they work, but can be inferred from other interactions easily), but Rays DEFINITELY do, since you can pick them for things like weapon focus.
The general principle behind this treatment is to simplify the definitions. What constitutes an attack? Anything with an attack roll. What constitutes a weapon? Anything used to make an attack. If something doesn't work with those definitions (such as invisibility or crafting magic weapons), it is generally either spelled out in the description or painfully obvious to the point of being almost impossible to dispute anywhere other than a message board.
Usually.