I'm playing an evoker and my fiancé is playing a necromancer. Each of us has a lot of touch attacks to make--ranged in my case, touch in hers. How do we improve those roles? I don't want any sort of "Ray" focus, because I don't specialize in rays; it needs to be general or nothing.
Obviously improving Str and Dex are good; what else ya got? Also it needs to be RAW, not house rules; we play PFS.
(Re: advice not to play an evoker or necromancer: Yeah, don't care.)
You can drop a feat on Weapon Finesse, that will improve your MAD a bit since you don't have to care about STR for melee touch attacks. You could also take Improved Feint to deny your touch targets their DEX to AC.
+1 - What Nails said. The feint option is very clever.
Other than that…
For ranged:
-Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot – needed for any ranged build, touch spells or otherwise
-Reach Spell (metamagic) – lets you increase the range of spells. Good option for some versatility incase the ranged caster wants to deliver a melee touch spell. Or, if the enemy decides to run and is out of range.
For melee:
-Improved Unarmed Strike - deliver touch attacks without initiating AoOs.
-Combat Casting – if you’re casting in melee, you need to be able to cast defensively…that means rolling concentration checks.
-Uncanny Concentration – still cast a spell in melee…even if you get hit
Both:
Spell Focus and Spell Penetration – make your spells more difficult to resist.
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Most of the time, you will need to beat a touch AC between 10 and 14. With weapon finesse and a good dex, you shouldn't have any issues. Because the AC of the touch attack is typically so low, there aren’t a lot of mechanics to optimize touch spells that are also not rays.
If your character is still lvl 1, another option is to go Magus. They are designed to deliver spells in Melee. Take Improved Unarmed Strike if you don't want to use a weapon. It might not be the flavor you want, but, it’s worth a look. For ranged, take a look at the Myrmidarch archetype.
I am playing a sorcerer and asked myself the same question a few levels ago. I solved it by taking a level of fighter for both the up in BAB and the extra feat, which I used to take Weapon Focus- Unarmed Combat. The Weapon Finesse idea mentioned by Nails is also a great idea for touch attacks!
A bunch of methods have been mentioned, but I'll throw a couple more on the list - invisibility, outflank feat and a menacing weapon.
For melee touch -
Increasing Str or Dex with Weapon Finesse
Feint (probably improved)
Spectral Hand spell
Outflank feat
Weapon with menacing enchant
Invisibility
True Strike spell
For ranged touch -
Increasing Dex
Point blank shot feat
Precise Shot feat
Invisibility spell
True Strike spell
Magus
Thanks to everyone who was actually helpful!
Pick up the 'wizard's hook'. A typeless plus four bonus to all melee touch attacks, plus it suffices for somatic components. Then get a parrot. But first, the hook
Pick up the 'wizard's hook'. A typeless plus four bonus to all melee touch attacks, plus it suffices for somatic components. Then get a parrot. But first, the hook
Holy crap that is awesome.