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When I'm looking over the sorcerer/wizard spell lists, I usually just skip over the touch attacks, even the ranged touch ones. However, there are a lot of primo Necromancy spells (and a few others) that rely on touch.
How would you guys go about building a sorcerer or wizard that uses touch attacks and/or ray attacks?
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Spectral hand works very nicely to deliver touch spells at low levels.
You can cast- then move- then touch (full round action). And when you touch (with the spell) you dont provoke an AoO.
Edit: after that if he's not dead or out of action your screwed...
Might want to look at a Bad Touch Cleric.
You can avoid attacks of opportunity with touch attack spells two ways. First is to cast the spell and touch with it immediately, the other is to hold the charge and touch as part of an attack against normal armor class.
I see someone finally mentioned spectral hand. Familiars can deliver touch attacks too.
If you want to build a true melee touch attack sorcerer or wizard, you will need to focus on AC and dex (which helps with AC).
You can wear armor, there's even a feat which reduces the penalties you take for wearing armor, but I've had melee touch casters who just eat the spell failure chance. It's not that high for light armor.
So some +1 studded leather, with a ring of force shield, ring of protection, amulet of natural armor, maximum dex score, belt of dexterity, dodge feat and a wand of barkskin... Even at low levels you're going to be pretty hard to hit, so get on in there and touch to your heart's content.
This would be one of the truly rare corner cases where I'd even consider "toughness" as a feat...
I'd go the eldritch knight route with weapon focus, weapon specialisation and improved critical. Take either a primal elemetal bloodline, a dragon bloodline or crossblood both. Throw in two levels of divine hunter paladin for free precise shot and cha bonus to saves, it also lets you smite 1/day for adding cha to your to hit and a little extra damage (+6 with the bracelet). You could use fighter insted for one level and a single feat but you would still pay for point blank shot to get precise shot (not bad with spell perfection but its already a feat heavy build) which would allow you caster level 18 before traits and give you access to ninth level spells
Take magical knack to keep your caster level up to scratch and then work towards spell or elemental focus, spell specialisation and spell perfection for your favourite ray +4 to hit(weapon focus and greater), +4 damage(weapon specialisaton), +4 save dc(spell focus and greater), +4 caster level(spell specialisation), while casting your spell perfected ray and you get to add a free metamagic feat to it (empowered, intensified or maximised, maybe persistant or piercing, the three metamagics i got would be empower and piercing then intensified if i focused on hp damage or persistant if i was debuffing)
I'd probably make it a word caster as well if possible as word casting gives the widest range of ray options, and allows you to change elements on the fly as well as provide control or debuff effects with your damage spells.
You could go Dragon Disciple as a to pick up some natural armor and a few other nifty abilities to help deliver touch attacks. If you play a race or bloodline that gives natural weapons that's always a plus for avoiding AoOs without improved unarmed.
Familiars can deliver touch spells as well as spectral hand.
Magus is a pretty decent class if you're looking to deliver spells through a weapon and you can fill out their limited spell selection with broad study arcana.
You could also rely on invisibility, mirror image, or some form of concealment to prevent the inevitable counter attack or AoO should your touch spell not neutralize things.
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If you are looking at focusing on ranged touch spells, investing in the point blank feat tree can be helpful to avoid circumstantial penalties (like when firing into melee).
A Warning: Being a necromancer that specializes in touch spells can be rough. Ideally, you are going to want to target creatures with your spells that have a bad touch AC - big honking monsters and heavily armored fighter-types, for example. Unfortunately, many necromancy spells have a Fortitude save component - the best saving throw for big honking monsters and heavily armored fighter-types, especially the big monsters, which generally have big Con scores on top of the good save.
I ran into this problem in my campaign with a player running a necromancer. The campaign featured lots of giants and dragons, things with lousy touch ACs. He would hit easily with the touch attack, and then I'd ask what his save DC was. Far too often the creature's Fortitude save bonus was higher than his DC.
I don't want to get you to pass on the concept, just consider what you are getting into. Talk with your GM and raise this concern. He probably has a good idea what coming up in the campaign, and could tell you if you are looking at a hard road ahead or not.
Food for thought.
If you want to focus on ray touch attacks, your best bets are Scorching Ray, Ray of Enfeeblement* and Enervation. Scorching Ray scales up nicely to 12d6 (18d6 if empowered). Enervation does a lot against bosses, since many of them have DC-based supernatural abilities, and their DC's are based off their HD
There are some touch attack spells available, though I dont know if Reaching spell would work on them. If so, just focus on being a ray caster
I play an arcane trickster, and it never fails to amuse me when i roll a 2 and hit
*even if the pass the fort save, the worst case scenario is a -3 to strength. Best case is -5
I believe the only spells that Point Blank Shot works on by RAW are ray spells. Ranged touch spells aren't considered weapons, but rays are specifically called out as working with weapon feats like weapon focus in the rules.
Many GMs will expand PBS to work with other ranged spell attacks, but not all of them will.
I believe the only spells that Point Blank Shot works on by RAW are ray spells. Ranged touch spells aren't considered weapons, but rays are specifically called out as working with weapon feats like weapon focus in the rules.
Many GMs will expand PBS to work with other ranged spell attacks, but not all of them will.
My GMs houserule it this way.
I actually find spectral hand and a rack of illusion based defences most useful - mirror image, invisibility (vanish is GREAT for this - so economical) and dont forget darkness and darkvision.
You will also find summoning is useful - summon, monster grapples target - you cast and touch without much risk.
There are all kinds of ways to make this work and the extra damage output or heavy hitting effects of touch spells make the effort worth it if you specialise in this mode of caster.
Another good Ray spell Zolthux didn't mention is Ray of Exhaustion. Even if they fail the save, the creature is still fatigued, and you can hit them with another Exhaustion afterward. My wizard has been decried by the public as a necromancer, yet all anyone has seen is him casting fireball and acid arrow. However, I have taken a lot of Nercomancy spells as the most powerful debuffs are Necromancy. Enervation is one of my favorites. It's ranged touch, lose 1d4 levels, no save. I fully plan on making a wand when I have enough time and cash. I also fully expect my GM to steal the wand from me.
aren't meele touch attacks effected by strength and not dex?
weapon finesse works on unarmed attacks.
Thanks, Tels, I knew I was forgetting one of the rays. That completes useful rays for lv1,2,3 and 4 spells
As for Race, halfling sorcerer and gnome sorcerer are best. Gnome gets +2 con for more HP and you can take the Racial trait that lets you reroll 1's once per day.
I run a gnome Sorcerer (Elemental Primal)7/Rogue 3/Arcane Trickster 5 and I'm able to hit on a 2 with Scorching rays, or debuff opponents by casting Enervation. I've also manaed to give an enemy a -10 str penalty with a ray of enfeeblement before.
I just helped a friend build an oracle of bones who focuses on inflict spells and undead. The nice thing about the build is that the higher lvl mass inflict spells are essentially a "make your own area effect" type, while the lower level ones can be used as melee touch attacks.
He specifically took the revelations which allow negative energy to heal him and deal additional bleed dmg with negative energy attacks (which if I'm right stacks with itself, as it doesn't say otherwise), so he can use the same spells to heal himself and deal increasing damage over time. Even if his targets save, they still take 1/2 dmg and bleed.
I also helped build in a decent melee aspect to be used with the lower lvl inflict spells. The feats chosen were catch off-guard, improvised weapon mastery, improved critical (improvised weapon), disposable weapon, weapon finesse, power attack, and furious focus.
With the armor of bones revelation and a few well chosen spells he has a +33 AC, and after spamming a few mass inflicts while his undead minions are holding back the baddies he can walk into melee, pick up the biggest bone he can find, cast greater magic weapon on it, and deliver inflict spells in combat with a 17-20 crit range and the option to auto confirm by breaking his weapon.
Of course, this is an oracle based melee build which uses touch spells, not strictly a ranged or melee touch build, which would likely require the point-blank shot tree. Still, it's a concept based on using touch spells whose charges can be held.
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As for a Wiz build, I would likely select the Metal school (Ultimate Magic) for the AC bonuses, and max out Dex with weapon finesse for both AC and so your melee touch spells (when needed) are still effective, though Necromancy works well too (but selects 2 opposition schools instead of one).
Alternatively, if you are using Ultimate Combat, pick up either a haramaki or silken ceremonial armor and a mithral buckler. All of these have a +1 AC bonus, no arcane spell failure, and no max Dex bonus, and enchanting them (armor + shield) is a lot cheaper than getting bracers of armor with an equivalent total AC boost. And make sure you know what AC boosting spells stack, because if you ever have to get in close, you will need all the defense you can get.
The nice thing though, will be that as long as you only use these spells as touch attacks (instead of delivering them through normal melee attacks), you will almost never miss, and since most touch spells don't have a "save negates" clause the biggest thing you will really ever have to worry about is SR. Spell Penetration feats and the Third Eye Penetrate item from Magic Item Compendium will usually overcome this, though.
Is there a reason you aren't looking at the Magus? They might not have ALL the spells that a Wizard/Sorcerer has, but they have alot of the same with options to learn them (Broad Study Arcana). Also they specialize with being able to cast in combat. They can make touch attacks through a weapon and in full armor making your concerns about getting hit less of a problem. When casting through a weapon you have a larger crit chance. Make a Dex build, take finess, you can through arcane pool put keen on the weapon at lvl 5 and have a 30% crit chance with a Kukri (my fav. weapon) Sure the weapon damage isn't great, but when the spell goes off along with the weapon it is like that 1d4 is just bonus... If it crit's on 15-19 all that spell damage is damage you wouldn't have gotten with a basic touch attack.
Most magus go with Shocking Grasp. This lvl 1 spell with the Magical Lineage Trait can become an Intensified Shocking Grasp and be a 10d6 on a lvl 1 spell.
Vampire Touch which is probably one of the Necromancer spells you were talking about is 1d6 /2 caster lvls up to 10d6 at 20. You would also gain the dmg you put out as temp HP. So if you worried about Melee damage this could negate alot of that concern as a LvL 3 spell.
The only concern with the Magus would be the lower progression of spells. Their spell list caps at 6th LvL.
Just an option if you hadn't looked into it. The Spell crit, spell strike, and being in full armor seem like things you could greatly benefit from if you want to do more touch spells.
Aberrant bloodline power:
Long Limbs (Ex): At 3rd level, your reach increases by 5 feet whenever you are making a melee touch attack. This ability does not otherwise increase your threatened area. At 11th level, this bonus to your reach increases to 10 feet. At 17th level, this bonus to your reach increases to 15 feet.
So I recently built a Sorcerer w/ a touch
Human Sorcerer (Bloodline: Draconic{Blue})
Stats
STR 17
DEX 15
CON 12
INT 12
WIS 11
CHA 20
Feats
Eschew Material*
Improved Unarmed Strike
Martial Weapon Proficiency: Longbow
Spells
Disrupt Undead
Jolt
Dancing Lights
Detect Magic
1
Shield
Shocking Grasp
So if fully prepped and aware ATK is 2 Claws +3 (2d4+6 plus Shocking Grasp 1d6+1)
This is kinda a one trick pony at 1st but next spell will be Gravity Bow and with a composite longbow this will be a very versatile character.
With STR being a main build stat, and one I intend to pump every other stat increase into, with a composite longbow (add STR to damage)+ Gravity Bow; it adds some much needed versatility to the build. I mean what happens when she's only got 1 spell left? She wont be trying to go in swinging without some arcane backup. So in short, yep. Did it.