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A discovery was made regarding the powers of cleric domains, sorcerer bloodlines, and wizard schools.
Nearly all of the powers requiring a touch are Spell-like abilities. Now, as per the rules they provoke attacks of opportunity whenever they are used. So if a cleric with the Death domain attempts to perform a Bleeding Touch on an enemy, she must either succeed in a Concentration check (DC 15) or provoke an attack of opportunity (assuming she is threatened by the enemy). Considering that this particular power (Death domain's Bleeding Touch) is clearly meant to be used against enemies, it strikes me as utterly stupid to have them backfire like this.
Furthermore I checked what the domain powers are in the 3.5 domains. They are supernatural abilities. I guess it'd be because then they don't provoke attacks of opportunity. For example the Death domain'd Death touch is a supernatural ability. And it has something to do with touching.
Am I just becoming insane, or does Pathfinder RPG show yet another ludicrous oversight?
A discovery was made regarding the powers of cleric domains, sorcerer bloodlines, and wizard schools.
Nearly all of the powers requiring a touch are Spell-like abilities. Now, as per the rules they provoke attacks of opportunity whenever they are used. So if a cleric with the Death domain attempts to perform a Bleeding Touch on an enemy, she must either succeed in a Concentration check (DC 15) or provoke an attack of opportunity. Considering that this particular power (Death domain's Bleeding Touch) is clearly meant to be used against enemies, it strikes me as utterly stupid to have them backfire like this.
Furthermore I checked what the domain powers are in the 3.5 domains. They are supernatural abilities. I guess it'd be because then they don't provoke attacks of opportunity. For example the Death domain'd Death touch is a supernatural ability. And it has something to do with touching.
Am I just becoming insane, or does Pathfinder RPG show yet another ludicrous oversight?
You can "hold the charge" after casting the spell-like ability with touch as the means of delivery, but before you move and actually touch with it, thus avoiding any AoO's.
Let's see what PRD says about spell-like abilities:
Spell-Like Abilities: Usually, a spell-like ability works just like the spell of that name. A spell-like ability has no verbal, somatic, or material component, nor does it require a focus. The user activates it mentally. Armor never affects a spell-like ability's use, even if the ability resembles an arcane spell with a somatic component.
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.
Spell-like abilities are subject to spell resistance and dispel magic. They do not function in areas where magic is suppressed or negated. Spell-like abilities cannot be used to counterspell, nor can they be counterspelled.
This is the best explanation for spell-like abilities in PRD. The bolded sentence means that spell-like abilities function just like spells for holding the charge and using a "cast a range:touch spell like ability + move + deliver the spell-like ability in the same round" trick.
Edit: Look out, there's ninjas afoot.
There's one other problem with these domain/school/bloodline (sp) abilities. They generally don't have a spell level. This means their interaction with effects that are dependent on spell level (globe of invulnerability, for example) can't be known. A supernatural ability wouldn't have this problem, because they don't need to have a spell level.
Some official answer should come for this, eh? Like many, many others...
You can "hold the charge" after casting the spell-like ability with touch as the means of delivery, but before you move and actually touch with it, thus avoiding any AoO's.
Just some hint:
the act of using the sp-ability provokes Aoo as pointed out earlier BUT the act of touching the opponent with such an ability does not because:
Combat Chapter - Cast A spell - Touch Spells In Combat - Touch Attacks says:
"Touch Attacks: Touching an opponent with a touch spell is considered to be an armed attack and therefore does not provoke attacks of opportunity. The act of casting a spell, however, does provoke an attack of opportunity."
So cast defensively and no AoO are provoked. The problem (already mentioned) is what spell level is to be used to determine DC for spell-like abilities.
3.5 says: "the level of the spell the ability duplicates". So it would be nice to have "spell level" in the abilities description to avoid searching for appropriate spells.