Is a melee touch attack a melee weapon?


Rules Questions


I ask because of the Skikigami ability, Improvised Weapon Mastery, which has the sentence:

"Although a shikigami is Tiny, it never provokes attacks of opportunity when it attacks an adjacent foe with a melee weapon."

If a melee touch attack counts as a melee weapon, this makes the Deliver Touch Attack ability actually useful for this familiar. Hence, the question.


The melee touch wouldn't count as a weapon but an unarmed strike or natural attack can also deliver a touch spell and both of those would most certainly count as melee weapons. To better understand it, think of the delivery of a Touch effect as a "rider" on an attack that deals no damage.


Gotcha. Makes sense, thanks.


At least in the department of magic "holding a charge" of a touch spell will make you "armed" in terms of mechanics, i believe you can also take weapon specialities in "touch attacks" aswell as "rays" so even if its not said directly it is kind of considered a weapon.

( Noting that you can AOO with a touch attack if you have a charge after a failed touch from previous round etc. )


As a tiny creature with reach 0 feet, I suppose that it would need a reach weapon (e.g. longspear) to attack an "adjacent foe" in melee? Why would it provoke an AoO for making the attack?


Pathfinder Maps Subscriber

Usually, with a reach of 0, it would have to enter the opponent's square to attack. Doing so would provoke. But this is special.


With a non-reach melee weapon, the shikigami cannot attack an adjacent foe. With a reach weapon, it can attack an adjacent foe, but this would not provoke an AoO anyway.


Axl wrote:

With a non-reach melee weapon, the shikigami cannot attack an adjacent foe. With a reach weapon, it can attack an adjacent foe, but this would not provoke an AoO anyway.

Which is exactly why it's clear the intent of the ability is to allow the shikigami the ability to attack an adjacent enemy with a non-reach melee weapon without provoking.

You're correct that, RAW, the ability does literally nothing. That immediately tells us that the RAW interpretation is not the RAI one.

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