Ok im having trouble understanding how ranged touch attacks work.How do the rules for it work and how does it make sense that you can touch someone who is not adjacent to you?
I'm sure I'll be ninja'd on this but oh well.
First off Ranged Touch language looks like this.
Touch Spells in Combat[/b]]Ranged Touch Spells in Combat: Some spells allow you to make a ranged touch attack as part of the casting of the spell. These attacks are made as part of the spell and do not require a separate action. Ranged touch attacks provoke an attack of opportunity, even if the spell that causes the attacks was cast defensively. Unless otherwise noted, ranged touch attacks cannot be held until a later turn.
Ranged attacks read like this:
Attack Bonus[/b]]
Your attack bonus with a ranged weapon is:Base attack bonus + Dexterity modifier + size modifier + range penalty
And finally:
Touch Attacks[/b]]Some attacks completely disregard armor, including shields and natural armor—the aggressor need only touch a foe for such an attack to take full effect. In these cases, the attacker makes a touch attack roll (either ranged or melee). When you are the target of a touch attack, your AC doesn't include any armor bonus, shield bonus, or natural armor bonus. All other modifiers, such as your size modifier, Dexterity modifier, and deflection bonus (if any) apply normally. Some creatures have the ability to make incorporeal touch attacks. These attacks bypass solid objects, such as armor and shields, by passing through them. Incorporeal touch attacks work similarly to normal touch attacks except that they also ignore cover bonuses. Incorporeal touch attacks do not ignore armor bonuses granted by force effects, such as mage armor and bracers of armor.
So essentially what you're dealing with is a spell, that bypasses armor, shield, and natural armor bonuses, but is delivered at range. It's a "touch" attack because the magical energy bypasses armor (read: steel plate doesn't hinder the magical energy at all). It's a ranged attack because you are "shooting" it from a distance. Hope that makes sense.
Edit: Wow, not ninja'd.
Ranged touch is used for things that don't matter if they penetrate hard defenses. You are not physically touching them, but are hitting them with something that doesn't care if they have armor. Only defenses based off of avoidance and not ones based off of stopping attacks help. Thus armor, which absorbs/deflects attacks does not work, but dodge and dex are helpful.
Examples of touch attacks are spells, alchemist fire, and nets. With spells, you are shooting a ray of energy at the opponent that ignores their armor. Napalm doesn't really care if you are wearing armor, and so it is also a ranged touch. Nets will entangle someone in armor just as easily as someone not in armor.
Also keep in mind that a ranged touch attack is subject to the same penalties that a normal ranged attack is, and those are:
1)Range (far shot can help with that)
2)Target is in melee with an ally (precise shot can help with that)
3)Soft cover (improved precise shot can help with that).