Gentle Rest (Repose Domain)

Questions:

Can Gentle Rest be used as one attack as part of full-attack action?

If yes. Can Gentle Rest be used multiple times in a full-attack action to render a living creature asleep after two succesful touch attacks?

rule from p.46
Gentle Rest (Sp): Your touch can fill a creature withn lethargy, causing a living creature to become staggered for 1 round as a melee touch attack. If you touch a staggered living creature, that creature falls asleep for 1 round instead.

Questions:

Can Gentle Rest be used as one attack as part of full-attack action?

I'm pretty sure it cannot be used this way:

Unless otherwise noted, using a domain power is a standard action.

And for further confirmation:

A spell-like ability has a casting time of 1 standard action unless noted otherwise in the ability or spell description. In all other ways, a spell-like ability functions just like a spell.

Given that, it's a standard action to activate Gentle Rest and, like all touch spells, you can deliver the touch attack as part of the same standard action. But all this means it cannot be used more than once in your turn, and only one attack (the first one that hits) of your Full Attack action could possibly deliver this effect (assuming you activated it on the previous round and "Held the Charge").

If yes. Can Gentle Rest be used multiple times in a full-attack action to render a living creature asleep after two succesful touch attacks?

Nope, but you could work with another cleric with this ability and the two of you could put someone to sleep assuming you both hit in the same round. Or you could attack someone who is staggered for another reason which would mean your hit is the hit that puts him to sleep.

Too bad they have to be living to fall asleep, else the fact that you can stagger undead for multiple rounds would let you put them to sleep with two consecutive hits (on different rounds). Sleeping undead would be strange, though, so it's probably just as well that the sleep effect only works on the living.

Not likely. As it is a Sp. ability, it is a standard action to use.

A spell-like ability has a casting time of 1 standard action unless noted otherwise in the ability or spell description. In all other ways, a spell-like ability functions just like a spell.

And unless Paizo changed pathfinder to differ from 3E in how it counts durations, the one round duration means the duration expires just before your next round.

The counter argument is:

The action required to activate the spell like ability is listed in the description (thus not the default) as a Melee Touch Attack.

The reasoning based on the sheer number of abilities that state what kind of action they are even if they would default to the stardard action without the extra text.

Compare grave touch:

You can make a melee touch attack as a standard action that causes a living creature to become shaken for a number of rounds equal to 1/2 your sorcerer level (minimum 1). If you touch a shaken creature with this ability, it becomes frightened for 1 round if it has fewer Hit Dice than your sorcerer level.

Convince your DM to let you use the Quicken Spell-Like Ability feat from the Bestiary. You'll also need to convince him that the caster level of the Gentle Repose is equal to your cleric level and that Gentle Repose is effectively a 1st level spell. You'll need to be 10th level for this to work, but in theory, it should work.

Is this an attack without a saving throw or resistance?

I say this because the ability to stagger undead for multiple rounds would be great against Vamps etc.....

Is there a way you could use a spell to make this a ranged attack?

Spectral Hand Maybe?????

Sigurd

Is this an attack without a saving throw or resistance?

I say this because the ability to stagger undead for multiple rounds would be great against Vamps etc.....

Is there a way you could use a spell to make this a ranged attack?

Spectral Hand Maybe?????

Sigurd

No save, but you must hit with the touch attack.

SR applies to spell like abilities, they're also dispellable.

The counter argument is:

The action required to activate the spell like ability is listed in the description (thus not the default) as a Melee Touch Attack.

"Melee touch attack" is not an action. There are 6 types of actions, listed below:

Free Action
Swift Action
Immediate Action
Move Action
Standard Action
Full-Round Action

There's also a nebulously-defined "attack action", but it's not an action in that same category as far as I can tell, merely a badly-named mechanical construct.

Bit of a necro of this thread, but I was wondering whether there was an official answer to this?

I am creating a new PFS character with the Repose domain and wondered whether it saying "as a melee touch attack" was enough to take precedent over the general 1 Std Action for a Spell Like Ability, just as some Combat Manouevres can be performed "as part of an attack
action, full-attack action, or attack of opportunity".

Also, if the scene was not yet in combat, and my character was able touch an NPC (e.g. by shaking hands) and used Gentle Repose I imagine that would kick off initiative as the NPC reacts to being staggered. If my character were to win initiative, would a second Gentle Repose be within the one round?

Or would a GM rule that my character automatically gets surprise and the first Gentle Repose is conducted on my initiative in the surprise round (meaning it would wear off before I got to react again)?

Thanks!

There's also a nebulously-defined "attack action", but it's not an action in that same category as far as I can tell, merely a badly-named mechanical construct.

That's not nebulously defined. The "attack action" is a subset of standard actions - specifically, the melee attack or ranged attack standard actions.

Here's another question. Can it be used as an attack of opportunity? And if so, if gentle touch is used again on the player's next round, will it then put the target to sleep?