In Undead Revisited there is a shadow variant called Shadetouch Shadow that has a CR +0.
It replaces the shadow's normal incorporeal touch (1d6 Strength damage) with 2 claw attacks that deal 1d8 damage plus the usual strength damage.
It specifies that the shadow is infused with partially real shadowstuff from the Plane of Shadow.
So my question is are these claw attacks touch attacks or not? The way I read it they are not touch attacks but made against the target's full AC, since they're partially real.
However, the shadow demon also has claw attacks that deal actual hitpoint damage, and they're specified as touch in the Bestiary/PRD.
My variant dread shadow is going to have the claw attacks and the incorporeal touch (not usable in the same round) but I'd like to know how the shadetouch shadow variant claws are supposed to work.
So I ran this last Saturday and I just had the claw attacks against regular AC. I'd still like to know how others think it should work though.
An incorporeal creature’s attacks pass through (ignore) natural armor, armor, and shields, although deflection bonuses and force effects (such as mage armor) work normally against it.
Since a shadetouch shadow is still incorporeal, any of its attacks follow the above rules. Pretty dangerous.
Thanks for pointing that out to me.
In our situation the creature's AB was high enough that AC vs. Touch AC wasn't really an issue and the character died from STR drain far before the hp damage mattered.
I'll make sure to adjust the creatures on the sheet to specify the claws are touch attacks.