| Istarial |
I was wondering if there was a way to make a touch spell become a range touch. I'm guessing if there would it would be a third party feat but I haven't been able to find one so far.
I know there is one where a familiar can deliver a touch but I don't have a familiar (If there is a way to get a familiar this may be useful)
| Douglas Muir 406 |
There are several ways, actually. The simplest is to use the Reach Spell metamagic feat.
Reach Spell (Metamagic)
Your spells go farther than normal.
Benefit: You can alter a spell with a range of touch, close, or medium to increase its range to a higher range category, using the following order: touch, close, medium, and long.
Level Increase: Special. A reach spell uses up a spell slot one level higher than the spell’s actual level for each increase in range category. For example, a spell with a range of touch increased to long range uses up a spell slot three levels higher.
Spells modified by this feat that require melee touch attacks instead require ranged touch attacks.
Spells that do not have a range of touch, close, or medium do not benefit from this feat.
This is a pretty good feat, and it's a popular way to make a touch monkey who doesn't actually have to touch. "Close" range is 25 feet plus 5' level. You still have to roll a ranged touch attack, so if you're going this route, be sure you have a decent Dex (and consider the Point Blank Shot feat, which gives you +1 to hit and damage).
Another possibility is to make regular use of the Spectral Hand spell. The tricky part here is that SH is a second level spell, and you have to burn it along with the touch spell to deliver the attack. So you need to spend a round casting SH, and then you're burning two spell slots to get that long-distance touch attack. That makes it finicky and situational. Hastened Spectral Hand can be fun, but that's a sixth level spell, and by the time you reach 11th or 12th level you probably have more attractive options. (Note that there aren't a lot of great touch spells above 3rd level.) I've never seen a great Spectral Hand build myself, but that's not to say it can't be done.
A third possibility is just to play an Aberrant Bloodline sorceror. Starting at 3rd level, you get an extra 5' of reach when making a touch attack. So you can stand behind the meat shield fighter to zap the monster. It's a weird bloodline power but you can actually build a pretty good touch monkey around it.
Are these the sorts of things you're looking for?
Doug M.
| Istarial |
reach spell is exactly what i was looking for. I must have missed it. My dex isn't too bad so touch attacks aren't too much of a problem. I wanted it more for turning single target cure spells into a range. the melee guys are obsessed with flanking and having to get within touch distance to heal them would cause a fair few attacks of opportunity, which is bad considering how squishy i am.
| Douglas Muir 406 |
Oh, one more: the Dodge - Mobility - Spring attack feat chain. Spring Attack lets you move part of your speed, attack, and then move the rest of your speed -- without provoking an AoO.
In theory, this would be great for a touch monkey: you could jump in, touch-zap, and jump out again without eating the AoO. Unfortunately, the requirements of the feat are (1) the Dodge and Mobility feats (2) Dex 13, and (3) BAB +4. Dodge is a decent feat that you might take anyway but Mobility is really a feat tax, and the BAB requirement means you can't get this until 8th level anyway -- at which point touch spells are starting to become less useful.
If you dip a level or two of fighter, this gets a lot more plausible, since you'll pick up +1 BAB and a feat slot. On the other hand, if you're going to play a fighter-wizard who casts touch spells a lot, you might as well suck it up and play a magus.
Doug M.
| Douglas Muir 406 |
You could also pick up a familiar by taking the tattooed sorceror archetype. You used to have to take archetypes at character creation, but Ultimate Campaign provided rules for switching archetypes in mid-campaign. I don't remember the details, but they actually made it pretty easy -- like, you have to go off somewhere and spend a couple of weeks retraining. If memory serves it doesn't even cost any money. I remember thinking it was /too/ easy, but that might just be me... anyway, if you want to go the familiar route, that's a possibility.
Healing in combat: the traditional solution for that is a cleric with Selective Channeling.
Doug M.