I was looking at actions today in the online PRD and got distracted by something mentioned for touch attacks.
The way the touch attack section reads seems to imply that I cast the spell, then any time before I cast another spell I have the touch spell charged and can attempt to touch someone and affect them with the spell.
Dose this included failed attempts to hit?
So if I cast shocking grasp, cast no other spells and touch no one else, can I make touch attack rolls every round against my opponent until I hit and the spell still goes off?
Not anything I'd heard about before and just wanted to clarify.
The way the touch attack section reads seems to imply that I cast the spell, then any time before I cast another spell I have the touch spell charged and can attempt to touch someone and affect them with the spell.
Sort of.
The round you cast, you get to make a touch attack as a free action.
After that round, if you haven't discharged the spell, you can hold the charge.
You can hold the charge indefinitely. When you discharge the spell (which can happen accidentally, be careful) it's over. If you cast another spell, the charge dissipates.
While holding the charge, you can make attacks which will discharge the spell. A touch attack is a standard action. You can also use unarmed strikes (multiple, if your BAB supports it and you use a full-attack) or natural weapons (Same thing, can use multiple if you have the ability). Using unarmed/natural weapons is against normal AC, not touch AC, and it may provoke depending on whether it would provoke normally.
So if I cast shocking grasp, cast no other spells and touch no one else, can I make touch attack rolls every round against my opponent until I hit and the spell still goes off?
Yes.
So if I cast shocking grasp, cast no other spells and touch no one else, can I make touch attack rolls every round against my opponent until I hit and the spell still goes off?Yes.
Whoa that's scary! You can fail at the touch attack AND keep their charge? Seems a little weird...and scary!
**EDIT**
Your successful melee touch attack deals 1d6 points of electricity damage per caster level (maximum 5d6). When delivering the jolt, you gain a +3 bonus on attack rolls if the opponent is wearing metal armor (or is carrying a metal weapon or is made of metal).
You also get +3 if they have metal armor or a metal weapon or made of metal!!! Against touch AC? Awesome!
But also...it does require a successful melee touch attack but does not specifically call out what happens to the charge if you miss. If you get to keep the charge after missing I'm totally switching to a caster!
You do retain the charge of a touch spell if you fail to touch a valid target. You can then make touch attacks in future rounds until you make physical contact a valid target, at which point the spell discharges normally. It is generally a standard usage of touch spells in combat, and really nothing new.
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Interesting, I never knew that. Reading over the Touch Spells in Combat section now. It does talk about if you haven't discharged in the same round you can make unarmed or natural attacks and still retain the charge and make touch attacks round after round. Neato!
All of this is critical to how Magus works actually. If a Magus couldn't retain the charge on a missed attack, he wouldn't be half as good.
Also, I love my natural attacking Dragon Disciple so much that I can't avoid an opportunity to gush about it. ^.^
Quickened Empowered Intensified Shocking Grasp plus 5 natural attacks (6 with Haste)? Yeah, I'll take that.