Deliver touch spell as a combat maneuver?

[pogie]

I have a touch witch that I would like to deliver Shocking Grasp with her prehensile hair as a trip CM. Is this possible?

[Conman the Bardbarian]

Wouldn't that make it harder to deliver a touch attack?

[pogie]

Conman the Bardbarian wrote:

Wouldn't that make it harder to deliver a touch attack?

Yeah. I just want to know if it is possible.

[DharTook]

As far as I know, nothing in the rules would make this explicitly impossible.

As a GM, I would personally would rule yes and no.

There are, to me, two distinct questions:

1. Can you discharge a touch spell while tripping someone? To me, the answer is unambiguously yes. Touch spells discharge if you touch something, including with a weapon. Tripping someone definitely qualifies.

2. Casting a touch spell gives you one free touch attack THAT round, so the second question would be: can you substitute a trip for that attack? I would rule no. Because the free attack only applies for a very specific purpose, I would rule it is not eligible to be replaced with a trip the way other melee attacks are. That said, I can find no explicit support for this view in RAW.

So my personal ruling is I WOULD allow you to cast shocking grasp and, on a future turn, trip someone, simultaneously discharging the spell. I would NOT allow you to cast the spell and immediately trip someone as a free action.

But, of course, I am not your GM and my opinion is not the one that matters. But those are my thoughts.

[pogie]

DharTook wrote:

As far as I know, nothing in the rules would make this explicitly impossible.

As a GM, I would personally would rule yes and no.

There are, to me, two distinct questions:

1. Can you discharge a touch spell while tripping someone? To me, the answer is unambiguously yes. Touch spells discharge if you touch something, including with a weapon. Tripping someone definitely qualifies.

2. Casting a touch spell gives you one free touch attack THAT round, so the second question would be: can you substitute a trip for that attack? I would rule no. Because the free attack only applies for a very specific purpose, I would rule it is not eligible to be replaced with a trip the way other melee attacks are. That said, I can find no explicit support for this view in RAW.

So my personal ruling is I WOULD allow you to cast shocking grasp and, on a future turn, trip someone, simultaneously discharging the spell. I would NOT allow you to cast the spell and immediately trip someone as a free action.

But, of course, I am not your GM and my opinion is not the one that matters. But those are my thoughts.

That is what makes sense to me. It would seem to cheat the action economy to allow it all in one turn.

[DharTook]

Minor addendum that does not alter my overall opinion: I erroneously stated the rules allow you to deliver touch attacks with weapons. Natural weapons is what the rules actually say.